are offered in its employees healthcare plan. A decision that some people are calling a

win for religious rights and others are calling a loss for Women's Rights. So, what is Hobby

Lobby and what did the court actually decide?

Well... Hobby Lobby is an arts and crafts company based out of Oklahoma City, with more

than 500 locations around the U.S.. It is a privately held corporation owned by devout

Evangelical Christians. They claim that some contraceptives offered under the Affordable

Care Act are against their religious beliefs and they didn't want to be complicit in providing

their employees access to these birth control measures. 5 out of 9 judges on the supreme

court agreed with Hobby Lobby and ruled in their favor.

Still. This ruling is very controversial. According to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,

who wrote the dissent to the Supreme Court's decision, there are tons of reasons the court

should have decided against Hobby Lobby.

First off, What about Hobby Lobby's female employees and their freedoms? Doesn't this

decision deny these employees access to contraception? Employees may not even share Hobby Lobby's

beliefs.

Plus, the government wasn't forcing Hobby Lobby to give their employees contraception,

they were forcing Hobby Lobby to leave that choice up to the employees and the employees

doctors. Again making it a personal rights issue.

And what about the court's ability to stand up against other religious beliefs in future

cases? Jehovah Witnesses are against blood transfusions? Christian scientists are against

vaccinations? What's to stop business owners with those beliefs from taking away those

options?

According to Justice Ginsburg we don't really know and she thinks that all of these concerns

should have been taken into greater consideration. So, why didn't the court vote Ginsberg's way?

Well, there are a slew of political reasons, but there is also a legitimate legal argument

centering around the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

It basically says that the Federal Government can not substantially burden a person's exercise

of religion even if that burden was put in place as a federal law. In this case Hobby

Lobby was going to be burdened with huge fines for not following the federal laws put in

place by the affordable care act.

The court upheld the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and Hobby Lobby won. The decision was

also eased along by the fact that non-profit organizations were already exempt from the

same section of the affordable care act that Hobby Lobby was refusing to follow. Plus,

the courts believe that the government could come up with a better way to get these contraceptives

The ruling as written only applies to "closely held" corporations, those that have at least

50% of their stock owned by 5 or fewer individuals. And it is limited to the contraceptives in

question and does not extend out to other laws or religious beliefs. Sorry Jehovah's

Witnesses, your beliefs on blood transfusions aren't going to be considered, for some reason.

Contraception only.

Still, critics have questions. Why didn't the court look into the validity of Hobby

Lobby's claims that the contraceptives in question were against their religious beliefs.

Is the morning after pill technically abortion?

Why didn't the court reopen the question of corporate personhood? If corporations can

be people, can they be religious people?

Why didn't they look at how this affects the rights of women? Are employers qualified to

speak to issues of women's health? Should religious groups be allowed to dictate what

health care women can and can not have access to?

A lot of people are having strong reactions to the ruling, if you are one of them let

us know what you think down below in the comments. And if you found this video informative, please

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