Hobby Lobby wins with SCOTUS's help.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

No shocker here, but the flood gates are open to allow companies to descriminate against anyone who doesn't buy their bullshit and I know.. You'll say it's narrow in focus, but does anyone realistically believe they're going to stop with providing contraception coverage because of their 'religious beliefs'?

[GrinningYMIR]

I thought the exact same thing when I saw that they had won, its a major step in the wrong direction if you ask me

[SGOS]

I have a feeling that employer provided health insurance won't be around much longer anyway.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I have a feeling that employer provided health insurance won't be around much longer anyway.

As long as we have conservative people in congress we won't have single payer. Single payer would be great, but I don't see it happening in my lifetime.

[Aroura33]

Ugh.  This is just more inequality, and widens the gap further.  Those with the money (the "job creators") get whatever they want by waving that damn title they have given themselves under everyone's noses.  For profit organizations are now going to get to base what they do on THEIR religions, completely ignoring the religions (or lack-of) of those whom they employ.

Fuck Hobby Lobby.  I knew they were trying this, but wasn't keeping up on it.  I mentioned last time I was here (when they were threateing to close all their stores over this) that they would do no such thing.  They were building a new store in my town at the same time they were threatening to shut down and fire 13,000 people if they didn't get their way.  It's done now.  I actually stopped in last week to see what the store looks like, as I had never been into one. It is loaded with religious decorative garbage.  Most of it is gift shop junk.  They have a very small portion actually dedicated to any sort of crafting, and most of that section is fake flowers.  Gah, I'll keep going to Jo-anns.  I won't set foot in a Hobby Lobby ever, especially after this ruling.  But I'm sure the sheeple will keep going there to buy their "Footprints in the Sand" wall hangings....gag.

[Poison Tree]

It is not how I had wanted the ruling to go but it is how I'd expected it to go

[AllPurposeAtheist]

To those delusional enough to think religion is dying off SCOTUS disagrees. I'm convinced that sooner or later this country will institutionalize blasphemy laws to make criminals out of us all. I hope I'm dead before then, but I can see it coming.

[stromboli]

http://www.salon.com/2014/06/30/there_was_nothing_limited_about_scotus_hobby_lobby_ruling_why_it_matters_for_everyone/

This is certainly bad news for the women who work at both of these places, but it’s bad news for the rest of us, too. The ruling sends a strong message that women’s health and women’s rights â€" as individuals and employees â€" do not matter as much as so-called religious liberty. It also shows once again that medically inaccurate ideas about healthcare can dictate the terms of a debate and ultimately win the day. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito argued that contesting Hobby Lobby’s claim that contraception is the same thing as abortion â€" an idea that has been refuted time and again by medical providers and associations â€" “in effect tells the plaintiffs that their beliefs are flawed.”

Aaannndddd........

To sum it up, five male justices ruled that thousands of female employees should rightfully be subjected to the whims of their employers. That women can be denied a benefit that they already pay for and is guaranteed by federal law. That contraception is not essential healthcare. That corporations can pray. That the corporate veil can be manipulated to suit the needs of the corporation. That bosses can cynically choose à la carte what laws they want to comply with and which laws they do not. Each specific finding opens a door to a new form of discrimination and unprecedented corporate power. If you think this ruling won’t effect you, you haven’t been paying attention. If you think these corporations are going to stop at birth control, you’re kidding yourself.

They not only put religious liberty over the health of women, but also handed even more power to the Oligarchy.

[Poison Tree]

Allow me to get on my little soap box here. Whenever someone tells me that there is no difference between republicans and democrats or something similar I always tell them to come back after the next time the SCOTUS hands down a 5-4 ruling or the next justice resigns.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Where the fuck is Jason telling us how the wondertarians would stand up for women and how they're just shuffling the deck chairs? I'm so sick of this bullshit, but unless we GOTV it'll get worse and worse. Don't buy the libertarian 3rd party crap because they suck the cock of the GOP at every chance.

[SGOS]

As long as we have conservative people in congress we won't have single payer. Single payer would be great, but I don't see it happening in my lifetime.

I don't expect single payer for another 50 years, but I still think employer provided healthcare is on the way out.  It's happening right now.  It's been happening.

[Aroura33]

I have been reading a friends FB feed where some douchebags actually pine for the days when the government did not force employers to do anything. Like they prefer the idea of unpaid overtime, no minimum wage, child labor, unsafe work environments, etc. And of course this is all 9n the women. Why can't women just abstain? Why is it someone else responsibility to take care of your reproductive health? They are actually too fracking stupid to see that not offering this makes it nearly impossible for many woman to control their own reproductive health, that having it affordable would actually lead to more woman taking that control. But no, they see the whole world backwards and upside down. It is so frustrating, I now remember why I rarely ever check FB.

This is such a huge thing, it is one of the more important ruling to come out of the SCOTUS, probably second only to the DOMA act. It is not just about women! This ruling will have extreme far reaching consequences. I would say unintended, but I think the 6 men who voted for it probably desire those consequences.

[Moralnihilist]

I wonder, because of this ruling could I then force my female employees to take birth control because to not do so is against my atheism.....
Without regard to their religious or personal beliefs....


Must call the lawyer

[aileron]

As long as we have conservative people in congress we won't have single payer. Single payer would be great, but I don't see it happening in my lifetime.

There are other options besides employer sponsored and single payer.  I think employers are waiting it out to see how the exchanges go.  If they work out, a lot of them will start giving their employees cash to go get their own health insurance from an exchange. 

[SGOS]

There are other options besides employer sponsored and single payer.  I think employers are waiting it out to see how the exchanges go.  If they work out, a lot of them will start giving their employees cash to go get their own health insurance from an exchange. 

Where I worked, we never saw any extra pay.  As insurance began to rise, we just got less coverage, and were required to pay the growing premiums out of our own pockets.  So it seems to me that the employer healthcare is something that harkens to the past as an added benefit provided because its cost was inconsequential when the concept started.  My guess is that companies are now eying insurance as burdensome requirement that could be eliminated. 

Postponing the employer requirement was one of the first benefits of Obamacare to be take away, and it has traditionally been the source of healthcare that most working class people had.  You can bet Washington is being lobbied hard by corporate funding to get rid of the insurance burden.  I think it was probably included in the bill because politicians thought that employers would not object to something they had traditionally provided being mandated by law.  This is no longer true as insurance costs have become astronomical, and out of reach for many.   It's no longer some cheap give away that can be added to employee compensation without taking a big bite out of profit.

From what I can tell, we are entering a new era with a changing socioeconomic structure with much less middleclass prominence.