The U.S. Supreme Court handed down two major decisions Monday, dealing a blow to labor unions and limiting the reach of the Affordable Care Act.
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court limited the scope of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, ruling that “closely held corporations” cannot be required to cover certain contraceptives under their employees’ insurance plans, provided that the company is owned by a small group of people with a religious objection to the practice.
Hobby Lobby, Inc., owned by the Green family, and the Conestoga Wood Specialties Corporation, owned by the Hahn family, challenged the constitutionality of the contraceptives portion of the Affordable Care Act, which they say would force them to violate their religious principles. The Court majority agreed with the Hahn and Green families, issuing a decision that applies only to such privately owned companies.
“The owners of the businesses have religious objections to abortion, and according to their religious beliefs the four contraceptive methods at issue are abortifacients,” Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion. “If the owners comply with the [Health and Human Services] mandate, they believe they will be facilitating abortions, and if they do not comply, they will pay a very heavy price.”
The entirely male majority included all but one male justice, Justice Stephen Breyer, who joined his three female colleagues in the dissenting opinion.
Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the dissenting opinion the Greens’ and the Hahns’ religious objection to the law does not constitute reason enough to restrict its scope.
“In a decision of startling breadth, the Court holds that commercial enterprises, including corporations, along with partnerships and sole proprietorships, can opt out of any law (saving only tax laws) they judge incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs,” Ginsburg wrote.
Ginsburg said she feared the majority’s decision would allow employers to force their religious beliefs on their employees.
“The distinction between a community made up of believers in the same religion and one embracing persons of diverse beliefs, clear as it is, constantly escapes the Court’s attention,” Ginsburg wrote.
In the separate matter of Harris v. Quinn, the Supreme Court also ruled that healthcare workers, like Pamela Harris, may not be required to pay public employee union dues.
Harris, a member of the Service Employees International Union, sued the state of Illinois, arguing that the automatic deduction of SEIU dues from her paycheck violates her right to free speech and association. The Supreme Court agreed Monday.
“A State may not force every person who benefits from this group’s efforts to make payments to the group,” Alito wrote in the majority opinion.
“If we accepted Illinois’ argument, we would approve an unprecedented violation of the bedrock principle that, except perhaps in the rarest of circumstances, no person in this country may be compelled to subsidize speech by a third party that he or she does not wish to support,” Alito continued. “The First Amendment prohibits the collection of an agency fee from personal assistants in the Rehabilitation Program who do not want to join or support the union.”
Twenty-four states have already outlawed the automatic deduction of union dues. Monday’s narrow decision orders such ‘right-to-work’ legislation to be extended to all health care employees. The decision does not apply to all public employee unions.
Monday’s rulings are the last the High Court will issue before its next term begins in October.
*The Hahn family referenced in the above article bears no relation to the article's author
