High court blocks contraception mandate for Christian college

[cbayer]

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/supreme-court-birth-control-wheaton-college-108567.html


Justices say the school does not have to fill out a contested form while it is on appeal. | AP Photos

By JENNIFER HABERKORN | 7/3/14 4:58 PM EDT Updated: 7/3/14 6:22 PM EDT

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Wheaton College doesn’t have to abide by the Obamacare contraceptive coverage requirement as long as the Christian school tells the Obama administration that it has a religious objection to providing birth control to its employees and students.

The order from a 6-3 court, and a scathing dissent, may foreshadow the second round of legal battles expected to take place in the Supreme Court later this year. On Monday, the court ruled in the Hobby Lobby case that closely held companies could be exempted from the contraception mandate if their owners had religious objections.

The justices said they would block the policy in Wheaton’s case until the courts determine whether the coverage requirement is valid for religious institutions and nonprofits — the issue that is likely to return to the high court this fall.

They were careful to say that Thursday’s order is not a reflection of their view on the merits of the case. But Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan responded to the brief ruling with a 16-page dissent that criticized the court for backtracking on its Hobby Lobby decision, which said that an accommodation by the Obama administration respects religious liberty.

more at link

[longship]

1. That isn't going to go over well with women faculty or students.

There's going to be huge blowback with these cases. Contraception has been legal for many years. To go back to those days now? What the fuck are they thinking?

HUGE blowback!

From Sotomajor's rather scathing dissent:

“Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word. Not so today,” Sotomayor wrote. “After expressly relying on the availability of the religious-nonprofit accommodation to hold that the contraceptive coverage requirement violates (the Religious Freedom Restoration Act) as applied to closely held for-profit corporations, the Court now, as the dissent in Hobby Lobby feared it might, retreats from that position.”

(Clip)

“Let me be absolutely clear: I do not doubt that Wheaton genuinely believes that signing the self-certification form is contrary to its religious beliefs,” she wrote. “But thinking one’s religious beliefs are substantially burdened — no matter how sincere or genuine that belief may be — does not make it so.”

Again, that didn't take long for the dissent in the Hobby Lobby case to be proven true.

[cbayer]

3. I hope you are right about the blowback.

It's hard to imagine that women are just going to sit back and take this. I think we will see it in upcoming elections, where some hard questions are going to be asked.

This has been posted a couple of times in gd, but not getting a lot of attention. Not sure why.

[longship]

2. Has this hit GD?

You might want to repost there.


Hope your travels are going well.

[okasha]

4. That's an even clearer split

than Hobby Lobby, and along even clearer gender lines.