2014/02/23/How to understand Hobby Lobby

• when: 2014/02/23 (2014/02/23)
• author: Marty Lederman
• source: SCOTUSblog
• topics: Hobby Lobby Hobby Lobby/Obamacare Religious Freedom Restoration Act Obamacare
• link: http://www.scotusblog.com/2014/02/symposium-how-to-understand-hobby-lobby/#more-205491
• title: Symposium: How to understand Hobby Lobby
• summary: «It is hard to recall a Supreme Court case that has been so commonly misunderstood, in so many respects, as the "contraception coverage" cases that the Court will consider on March 25, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius..»

Excerpt

In a series of posts on Balkinization, I have tried to untangle many of these and other mischaracterizations and misunderstandings. My focus here, however, is on two critical, and related, aspects of the cases that have largely been obscured or misrepresented.

1. The plaintiffs in these cases are seeking a type of religious exemption that has virtually no precedent in the history of free exercise and RFRA adjudication.
2. This ties into my second principal point about how the law has been widely mischaracterized: There is no "contraception mandate."