LGBT Legal Activists Brace for Religious Rulings from SCOTUS

06/10/2014
By Lisa Keen

June is the final month of the U.S. Supreme Court’s current session and, while anticipation is not nearly so great this year for the LGBT community as it was last year, there is some concern in the air.

Last year, the wait was about marriage: whether the Supreme Court would declare the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s ban on same-sex couples marrying to be unconstitutional. It declared DOMA unconstitutional and, on a legal technicality, it allowed a lower court decision striking California’s Proposition 8 to stand.

This year, anxiety surrounds two consolidated cases in which employers are seeking the right to discriminate against employees in the provision of health benefits based on the company owner’s personal religious beliefs. It is the type of conflict –religious beliefs versus non-discrimination laws-- that has arisen time and again in recent years by employers seeking to discriminate against LGBT people.

Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood v. HHS are lawsuits brought by the owners of for-profit commercial enterprises --a furniture maker, an arts and craft store, and a bookstore (the latter selling Christian-oriented books). The owners of the company object to a requirement by the Affordable Care Act that employers’ health plans include coverage for contraception. They say they’re not trying to stop the use of contraception; they just don’t want to be involved in funding it.

http://www.towleroad.com/2014/06/legal-activists-brace-for-religious-ruling.html