The owners of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialites Corporation argued in court that the HHS mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act – which requires all employers to provide contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs to female employees without charging a co-pay – violates their owners’ evangelical Christian faith.

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 of 1993 (RFRA) 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 law holds that government may only impose a mandate that burdens religious business owners’ consciences if the government has a compelling mandate and uses the least invasive means possible.

“We reject HHS’s arguments that the owners of the companies forfeited all RFRA protection when they decided to organize their businesses as corporations rather than sole proprietorships or general partnerships,” the justices wrote. “The plain terms of RFRA make it perfectly clear that Congress did not discriminate in this way against men and women who wish to run their business as for-profit corporations in the manner required by their religious beliefs.”

The ruling holds that the HHS mandate is not the least invasive alternative. “The mandate plainly fails that test,” the opinion holds.

Chief Justice John Roberts joined Alito, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas on the majority decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. (formerly Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc.) and Conestoga Wood v. Burwell. 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.” Americans United for Life President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest agreed it was ” a victory for common-sense as pro-life Americans do not lose their First Amendment freedoms when they open a family business or when they value unborn life.”

The owners of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialites Corporation argued in court that the HHS mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act – which requires all employers to provide contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs to female employees without charging a co-pay – violates their owners’ evangelical Christian faith.

Hobby Lobby is the largest and only non-Catholic privately owned business tofile a lawsuit against the HHS mandate. The company provides 16 of the 20 forms of contraception required by new federal regulations. But the owners opposed paying for or furnishing potential abortifacients like Ella and the morning-after pill to its female employees.

Read More

See also: Supreme Court Rules for Hobby Lobby in Religious Liberty Case