Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a terrific point in oral argument that the parties had not raised — and it deserves to be the centerpiece of a dissent if there is no majority for it. Sotomayor noted that both parties assumed that Hobby Lobby would be burdened by having to pay a penalty or fine if it chose not to extend contraceptive coverage to its employees. As she observed, however, under the Supreme Court’s holding in the case establishing the constitutionality of the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act, the court characterized the mandate as a tax, not a penalty. (At this point in the oral argument, Roberts, the author of that controversial holding, drew laughs by interjecting, She’s right about that.)
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 21:11:21 +0000