Supreme Court: Family-Owned Companies Can Refuse Contraceptive Coverage

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Demonstrators react to hearing the Supreme Court's decision on the Hobby Lobby case outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, June 30, 2014.

Image: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

By Brian Ries2014-06-30 15:17:49 UTC

The Supreme Court says family-owned corporations can hold religious objections over the Affordable Care Act's requirement that they cover contraceptives for women.

That opinion came in a 5-4 decision on Monday that marks the first time that the high court has ruled that profit-seeking businesses can hold religious views under federal law. And it means the Obama administration must search for a different way of providing free contraception to women who are covered under objecting companies' health insurance plans.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, and was joined by the court's four other conservatives; the four liberals dissented.

In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the majority opinion a "decision of startling breadth" and said she was "mindful of the havoc the Court’s judgment can introduce." Justice Anthony Kennedy, responding to Ginsburg, said the ruling “does not have the breadth and sweep ascribed to it by the respectful and powerful dissent.”

The ruling — which is being called "incredibly narrow" by some Supreme Court observers — was being watched for its implications over how companies can treat employees when their interests differ from the religious beliefs of their owners. The government may be able to find other ways to provide contraceptive coverage to employees of these companies.

In clarifying remarks, the justices in the majority say this ruling shouldn't open the door wider to religious claims. "This decision concerns only the contraceptive mandate and should not be understood to hold that all insurance-coverage mandates, e.g., for vaccinations or blood transfusions, must necessarily fall if they conflict with an employer’s religious beliefs," the court said. "Nor does it provide a shield for employers who might cloak illegal discrimination as a religious practice."

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, whose organization was involved in the case and cited in Justice Ginsberg’s dissent, tweeted her disgust at the decision. “BREAKING,” she wrote. “SCOTUS gives CEOs the right to deny women insurance coverage for birth control based on their own personal beliefs.” She added: "Birth control is basic health care used by 99% of women — unbelievable that we're fighting for it in 2014."

Her organization immediately tweeted a hashtag in protest of the ruling — #NotMyBossBusiness — which others quickly tweeted, too.

The case is being referred to as "Hobby Lobby," the name of a craft store chain that had challenged the contraceptive coverage requirement.

Here's the full decision:

BURWELL, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, ET AL. v. HOBBY LOBBY STORES, INC., ET AL.

This story is developing... The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Topics: birth control, Politics, Supreme Court, U.S., US & World, women