Breaking: SCOTUS Affords Religious Exemption to Obamacare Contraceptive Mandate for Certain Employers

Well, it has been a big day at SCOTUS. Now, we have the opinions in Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood. The introductory paragraph from Justice Alito's majority opinion:

We must decide in these cases whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), 107 Stat. 1488, 42 U. S. C. §2000bb et seq., permits the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to demand that three closely held corporations provide health-insurance coverage for methods of contraception that violate the sincerely held religious beliefs of the companies’ owners. We hold that the regulations that impose this obligation violate RFRA, which prohibits the Federal Government from taking any action that substantially burdens the exercise of religion unless that action constitutes the least restrictive means of serving a compelling government interest.

I'll need some time to digest the full opinion - but that's the gist of it.

Lawffice Links - Hobby Lobby SCOTUS Oral Arguments

Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby (aka the Obamacare Contraceptive Mandate Case). I baked some Lawffice Links for the occasion:

• First, check out the SCOTUSblog page for Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby, and a friendly reminder that there is a companion case straight out of my home state of Pennsylvania, Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius.
• You can check out the transcript from oral arguments here. And, the audio is now available here. 
• SCOTUSblog's argument recap.
• The Wall Street Journal live-blogs the craziness. 
• Did I mention that a woman hand-knitted a uterus for Hobby Lobby?

I suspect this will be one of the last SCOTUS opinions of the year, sometime in late June.

Parties Petition SCOTUS to Hear Corporate Free Exercise Issue

Do corporations have religious free exercise rights? The Third Circuit said no. But, the Tenth Circuit said yes. Now, the losing parties from each case have petitioned the Supreme Court to address the issue.

The cases arise from an Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) provision requiring employers to provide health insurance th

at covers birth-control (among other reproductive issues). The appealing corporation from the Third Circuit frames the issue as:

Whether the religious owners of a family business, or their closely-held, for-profit corporation, have free exercise rights that are violated by the application of the contraceptive-coverage Mandate of the ACA.

You can read the details and find links to the petitions at SCOTUSblog here. Given the circuit split and the desire for SCOTUS review from both the federal government and the private sector, I think SCOTUS will take the case. We'll see though . . .

I should note that both cases involve a statute called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Only the Third Circuit petition raises First Amendment issues.