Supreme Court sides with Hobby Lobby on HHS mandate in 5-4 decision

This morning the U.S. Supreme Court decided Hobby Lobby cannot be compelled to furnish potentially abortion-inducing drugs to its employees by a 5-4 decision.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act allows for closely-held corporations like Hobby Lobby to maintain their religious outlook and still do business, the majority ruled in a 49-page opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito.

“The Court says that the government has failed to show that the mandate is the least restrictive means of advancing its interest in guaranteeing cost-free access to birth control,” according to the SCOTUS blog. “Justice Kennedy’s concurring opinion says that the government could pay for the coverage itself, so that women receive it.”

Chief Justice John Roberts joined Alito, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas on the majority decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, formerly Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote a four-page concurring opinion to swing the decision in favor of Hobby Lobby.

The court’s four liberal justices filed two separate dissents. One, authored by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, runs 19 pages and calls the majority opinion “a decision of startling breadth.” Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan filed a separate dissent, joining Ginsburg in part.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins called the decision “one of the most significant victories for religious freedom in our generation.”

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