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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said the
ruling on the Hobby Lobby case was based on a misreading of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and would likely open the door to a host of unintended consequences.
"Little doubt that RFRA claims will proliferate, for the Court's expansive notion of corporate personhood - combined with its other errors in construing RFRA - invites for-profit entities to seek religion-based exemptions from regulations they deem offensive to their faith," she wrote.
The court ruled 5-4 Monday that the government cannot compel closely held corporations with religious owners to provide contraception coverage for its employees.
In a scathing,
35-page dissent, Ginsberg concluded that the contraception mandate did not impose a substantial burden on Hobby Lobby or Conestoga Wood Specialties - and therefore did not violate the RFRA.
She said the Affordable Care Act required employers to direct money into undifferentiated funds to pay for a wide variety of benefits under comprehensive health plans, and Ginsberg said employees were not obligated to use contraception coverage.
"Even if one were to conclude that Hobby Lobby and Conestoga meet the substantial burden requirement, the Government has shown that the contraceptive coverage for which the ACA provides furthers compelling interests in public health and women's well being," Ginsberg wrote. "Those interests are concrete, specific, and demonstrated by a wealth of empirical evidence."
While the court has recognized First Amendment protections for churches and other nonprofit religion-based organizations,
Ginsberg noted that no previous court decisions had ever recognized a for-profit corporation's qualification for religious exemption from any laws.
Comment: As usual we see the law in pursuit of 'the little man' and still nowhere does it lean in on perpetrators of the true crimes against mankind. The law aims to please the ones above it who perfected "fraud by false representation".