Hobby Lobby, a craft store chain, will argue to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday that they do not have to comply with the Obamacare federal mandate that they include contraception in their employee health plans based on religious grounds.
Hobby Lobby, which has 13,000 full-time employees, is just one of the large, for-profit businesses refusing to abide by this mandate. Mardel, a bookstore chain, and Conestoga Wood Specialties, a cabinet manufacturer, are also joining in the fight. These companies believe that certain forms of contraception are equivalent to abortion, and providing it to their employees is an offense to their religious faith.
President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act requires large employers to offer their workers comprehensive health coverage, including contraception, or pay a fine.
If Hobby Lobby and Conestoga prevail, it would prompt "a fundamental shift in the understanding of the First Amendment," David Gans, the civil rights director for the Constitutional Accountability Center, told CBS News.
Hobby Lobby's owners, David and Barbara Green of Oklahoma, and the Pennsylvania-based Hahn family, the Mennonite owners of Conestoga Wood Specialties, launched the debate.
"This case will decide whether a family gives up their religious freedom when they open a family business," said Lori Windham, a senior counsel for the Becket Fund, which is representing Hobby Lobby. "The question here is whether the Green family can be forced to do something that violates their deeply held religious conviction as a consequence of the new health care law."
Meanwhile, others are outraged that the companies think they can be given this "freebie."
"For an employer to say, I will cover all the basic essential health needs for men, but I am picking and choosing for women, and I am simply going to take out contraception or specific forms of medically approved contraception, it is sex discrimination," said Marsha Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, on NPR.
The Supreme Court will determine whether Hobby Lobby and crew can claim religious exemption from the mandate under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which dictates that an individual's religious expression shouldn't be "substantially burdened" by a law unless there is a "compelling government interest."
No clear consensus has been reached yet. During the 90-minute argument, three justices from the court's liberal wing defended the birth control stipulation by firing repeated questions at the lawyer, Paul Clement, who is against the mandate, while conservatives fought back, according to Reuters.
