Seemingly divided, the Supreme Court struggled Tuesday with the question of whether companies have religious rights, a case challenging President Barack Obama’s health overhaul and its guarantee of birth control in employees’ preventive care plans.
Peppering attorneys with questions in a 90-minute argument, the justices weighed the rights of for-profit companies against the rights of female employees. The discussion ranged to abortion, too, and even whether a female worker could be forced to wear an all-covering burka.
The outcome could turn on the views of Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the decisive vote, as his colleagues appeared otherwise to divide along liberal and conservative lines.
Sad for the AP to characterize this as being about the “rights of female employees,” when the case involves the federal government coercing religious believers who own businesses to pay for thing they consider to be grave moral wrongs. The women continue to be able to purchase the products if they choose, but the government insists that someone else must be forced to pay for it.