The Supreme Court Today…

…Is hearing the case of Hobby Lobby today. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods sued the government because they say that providing contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act to their employees violate their religious beliefs. You might think that this doesn’t affect me, I don’t care if a company provides birth control pills to their employees, this case might be one of the most important cases heard by the Robert’s Court.

Why? For two reasons the first is that Second Amendment’s religious freedom clause will now apply to companies and the second it will turn all the anti-discrimination cases void. Bishop Gene Robinson wrote,

Religious Freedom Goes Too Far
By Gene Robinson March 23, 2014 12:00 AM The Daily Beast

On Tuesday, March 25, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral arguments from Hobby Lobby, a nationwide chain of craft stores, whose CEO objects—on religious grounds—to funding certain types of contraception under the Affordable Care Act. If the Supreme Court makes good on presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s statement that “corporations are people too,” investing them with “freedom of religion,” there will be no end to such claims in the courts.
[…]
There is already a generous and broad religious exemption for religious bodies—a hole wide enough to drive a Pope-mobile through, in my opinion. Churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious affiliations have the authority to set their own rules and practices, according to their beliefs, without interference from government. What is at issue in the Hobby Lobby case is one man’s religious beliefs which, because he is the CEO of the company, he wants to impose on the 14,000 or so of his employees.
[…]
Make no mistake. You can support religious liberty and still reject Hobby Lobby’s arguments.  But a Hobby Lobby victory risks paving the way for corporations to use religion to control the lives of others and to trample their religious freedom and their right to equal treatment under the law.

If they rule in favor of Hobby Lobby it a huge impact on the anti-discrimination laws,

Religion run amok? Hobby Lobby's case comes to the Supreme Court
LA Times
By Robin March 21, 2014

“Where will this end?” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, during a conference call Thursday with reporters that included representatives from Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and the National Women's Law Center. “What could be next? Could our bosses decide on religious grounds they don’t want to offer vaccinations? Or HIV medications?”

The Supreme Court has never held that a corporation can express religious beliefs, said Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center. “And it has never held that religious exercise provides a license to harm others, or violate the rights of third parties.”

And an article in Yahoo News by Warren Richey said that the,

The government warns that if the religious owners in the current case win their exemption at the Supreme Court it could open the floodgates to limitless demands for other religious exemptions.

“Employers might assert religious objections to coverage of virtually all conventional medical treatments, including immunizations, blood transfusions, anti-depressants, medications derived from pigs, and gene therapy,” Verrilli says.

“The result would be a patchwork of unpredictably incomplete coverage for employees dictated by the religious beliefs of their employers’ shareholders,” he said.

Would it also mean that a business could refuse to hirer blacks or non-Christians or LGBT people because it would violate their religious beliefs? As you can see this court case has far ramifications that will affect all of us.

Here is an analysis of today's hearing,

Justice Kennedy Thinks Hobby Lobby Is An Abortion Case — That’s Bad News For Birth Control
ThinkProgress
By Ian Millhiser
March 25, 2014

WASHINGTON, DC — Justice Anthony Kennedy thinks gay people are fabulous. All three of the Supreme Court’s most important gay rights decisions were written by Justice Kennedy. So advocates for birth control had a simple task today: convince Kennedy that allowing religious employers to exempt themselves from a federal law expanding birth control access would lead to all kinds of horrible consequences in future cases — including potentially allowing religious business owners to discriminate against gay people.

Kennedy, however, also hates abortion. Although Kennedy cast the key vote in Planned Parenthood v. Casey upholding what he called the “essential holding of Roe v. Wade,” he’s left no doubt that he cast that vote very grudgingly. Casey significantly rolled back the constitutional right to choose an abortion. And Kennedy hasn’t cast a single pro-choice vote in an abortion case in the last 22 years.
[...]
Indeed, not long after Solicitor General Don Verrilli took the podium to argue the government’s case, it appeared that he may ultimately emerge victorious. Clement spent much of his argument on his heels. The three women on the bench appeared quite confident in their questioning. Kennedy was silent for much of Verilli’s argument.

But then he made a statement that will likely doom the government’s case. “Your reasoning would permit” Congress to force corporations to pay for abortions, Kennedy told Verrilli. This was not the Anthony Kennedy that worried about conservatives imposing their anti-gay “animus” on others, this was the Anthony Kennedy that views abortion as a grave moral wrong. Shortly after Kennedy made this statement, Justice Kagan’s face dropped. It appeared that she’d just figured out that she would be joining a dissenting opinion.

You can never know what the justices are thinking, just look at the decisions in the Affordable Care Act and the Citizens United cases.

Update 4:15PM Another analysis of the case:

SCOTUSblog
Lyle Denniston Reporter
Posted Tue, March 25th, 2014 1:18 pm

Argument recap: One hearing, two dramas