Supreme Court Punts On Contraceptive Case

Our divided Supreme Court managed to make a unanimous ruling this morning, sending the current case on contraceptives and so-called religious freedom back to the lower court to craft a solution.

SCOTUSblog reports that the justices issued a unanimous per curiam opinion after hearing and rehearing cases in which religious organizations challenged the requirement that they sign an opt-out document on the basis of religious freedom.

After asking for argument about ways accomodations could be made so that employees could obtain birth control without their employers opting out in their insurance policies, Lyle Denniston reports that the justices viewed "those filings as containing concessions that move the two sides somewhat closer together, but at the least provided a basis for letting the federal appeals courts be the first to analyze the meaning and impact of those concessions."

In other words, send it back to the lower court to craft some sort of compromise.

That doesn't mean they'll stop challenging it, because the true bottom line for these religious organizations is the patriarchal need to control women's reproductive freedom, and the ways this zealotry will manifest itself in the 2016 election.

Indeed, Denniston writes that it does "seem likely is that this was a new demonstration of how the Court is having to adjust its actions to deal with the fact that it is one Justice short of its normal membership."

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