... [I]n the case of equal opportunity for women versus a religious doctrine held by the plurality of the members of the Supreme Court, the religious doctrine just won, even as they say in the same breath that no precedent should be considered established by their decision.
In short, the Supreme Court has decided that, far from interpreting the law consistently, it will get to be the ultimate arbiter, on an ad-hoc basis, of which religious claimants get exemptions from what governmental requirements. Evidence so far suggests they'll use it for the particular doctrines that suit them. With their decision in Hobby Lobby, the Court has basically given itself the right to establish preference for particular religions over others. And while the Obama administration may be able to fix the damage this ruling does to women's health, the lasting damage to religious pluralism may be a much more difficult consideration.Let's be frank here. It's no secret that the five white male Republican justices who decided in favor of the right of a corporation to claim a religious exemption from a contraception coverage mandate are all Roman Catholics (as, incidentally, the Hackwhackers were raised). The Church's self-serving, medieval views on contraception are well-known. The five Republican Catholic justices simply crafted a decision that followed their Church's teachings (as well as their own corporatist, right-wing political biases), as opposed to rendering a decision that one would otherwise expect in a secular democracy. That the decision also underscored the Court's view of a "closely-held" corporation as capable of protection under a claim of religious freedom continues the obscenity contained in their Citizens United decision, where they decided for the first time in American history that corporations are people and money is speech.
It will take time to reverse these and other crackpot decisions, but they will be reversed if the Democrats hold the White House and can sustain a majority in the Senate, especially in 2016 and beyond. That's what we have to work toward in the months and years ahead.
