The Supreme Court agreed on November 26, 2013 to hear the religious challenges of Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. to the contraceptive coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act. While not on the Supreme Court website calendar yet, the latest information indicates the cases will be heard in March. The Court has consolidated the two cases and scheduled only one hour of argument for both cases.
As discussed in earlier blog posts (Supreme Court Asked to Decide If Corporations Have Religious Freedom and Do For-Profit Corporations Have Religious Freedom?), the general issue is whether for-profit companies with devoutly religious owners can be required to provide contraceptive coverage that conflicts with their religious beliefs.
