Thoughts on the Supreme Court Hobby Lobby Ruling.

This has nothing to do with whether or not an employer should be forced to offer healthcare. That is a separate argument. This also has nothing to do with whether or not an employer can pick and choose the level of coverage or what services are covered and what services are not. This is about a business claiming religious objection to services specifically for female employees who are not necessarily of the same faith. This allows an employer to apply their religious ideals to their employees regardless of their employees faith.
These are employers covered by title 7 of the civil rights act, preventing discrimination based on, among other things, religion and sex. What the Supreme Court has done here is overrule title 7 in two areas. Firstly, they are holding their female employes to the employer's religion of choice. This means that if an employer has a religious objection to something, in this case female birth control, but the employee is of a religious belief that doesn't object, the employer's faith gets applied to the employee.
Besides being religiously discriminating in violation of the civil rights act, this decision also discriminates based on sex. This decision by the Supreme Court allows employers to take away coverage on gender lines. There is no imperative to apply the same logic to women's healthcare and men's healthcare. Reproductive services for men, such as vasectomies and viagra, are still covered, while similar services are not covered for women.
It's also quite offensive that male employers worked with male Justices of the Supreme Court to take rights away from women. It wouldn't be right if women were making these decisions for other women either, but at least you wouldn't have one sex taking away the rights of another sex.
And yes, as I've already stated, this decision is taking away rights guaranteed under the law. Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states: "It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer
to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." The protections afforded you under this act are rights, but they've been taken away for some of us. Your employer, at least in some instances, is allowed to discriminated against you based on their religion or your sex.
We are not talking about churches, or religious groups, or religious based organizations. We are talking about for profit businesses run by someone with a religious belief. Hobby Lobby isn't a Christian business, but it is run by people of a specific religious faith. Those people believe that certain women's services are in violation of their faith. There is nothing wrong with that. There are almost as many religious beliefs as there are people on the planet. Everyone has a right to interpret that huge question of faith in their own way. Their belief system is not being challenged. Where they cross a line is when they apply that belief to laws that affect us all.
Once a certain religious belief has been turned into law then everyone who believes differently is forced to follow rules put forth by someone else's religious beliefs.
What could this mean? Well, now that we have allowed one major employer to apply policy based on their particular version of Christianity (it is important to note that not all versions of Christianity discriminate against women, reproductive health, sexual orientation, et cetera), the precedent has been set for more discrimination. For instance, an employer who is religiously opposed to same sex marriage may not want to allow vacation time for a gay employee to get married. They may be religiously opposed to psychiatric care, vaccinations, or women in positions of power.
If an employer holds a religious belief that women shouldn't be supervisors (not a far cry from not allowing women pastors, for instance) should they be allowed to deny female employees the promotions they deserve? What if they think that women shouldn't be in the work force? There are certainly religions that believe that men work and women maintain the home. Should those employers be allowed to only hire men. Can they post a sign out front saying "Now Hiring: Men Only"?
If you think this ruling couldn't lead to further discrimination, ask yourself this: Why would one particular Christian based view of women's reproductive health be protected without allowing other views equal weight?