Hobby Lobby: Supreme Court Decision Fans Flames Of Culture War (Democrats might get a bigger boost)
The Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling gives both sides an issue around which to mobilize voters as midterms loom. But Democrats might get a bigger boost.
By Linda Feldmann, Staff writer June 30, 2014
Washington — In its ruling Monday on the contraception mandate in Obamacare, the Supreme Court has lit a new spark in the nation’s long-standing culture war. The impact is likely to be felt immediately in midterm election campaigns, in state legislatures, and in Congress.
The high court ruled 5-to-4 in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that family-held private corporations can opt out of offering some forms of birth control in employee health plans, based on the business owners’ religious objections. In this case, the owners of the craft store chain Hobby Lobby say that the birth control methods in question – two forms of morning-after pill and two types of intra-uterine device – can cause early abortions.
As with gay marriage, the Hobby Lobby case presented a clash of interests between religious conservatives and those with a more secular view of how social issues should be addressed in public policy. Both sides can be expected to use the case to engage their voters.
“The issues in the Hobby Lobby case are classic base mobilization issues – on both sides,” says John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron in Ohio.
“On the Democratic side, pro-choice and health-care advocates may be motivated to participate more extensively in the midterm elections; and on the Republican side, pro-life and opponents of Obamacare may be motivated as well.”
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http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2014/0630/Hobby-Lobby-Supreme-Court-decision-fans-flames-of-culture-war
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