Some
14,000 people work for Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods, the two companies who brought this suit. But those are by far not the only employees whose healthcare choices can now be limited by the beliefs of their employers. For one thing, there are still
46 pending challenges to the contraceptive mandate in the law out there.
A total of 71 companies brought those cases, but Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods got to the U.S. Supreme Court first. Even if all those cases are now dismissed as being settled by Hobby Lobby, there are 71 companies that want to take away healthcare choices from their employees. That ranges from Trijicon, "a military contractor specializing in optics equipment for weapons," to Joe Holland, "a born-again Christian who owns a local car dealership," and "is taking on the contraceptive mandate in court even while publicly touting his company's support for women." Here's a surprising one to go on boycott lists: "Eden Foods, the Michigan-based organic food company."
Don't worry, many pundits are saying—this is a "narrow" ruling. (Note: Perhaps only people who have uteruses should be allowed to weigh in on whether and how this is really "narrow.") It only applies to "closely held" corporations, so really you won't have tons of employers claiming this exemption. Closely held, though, doesn't necessarily mean "small." In fact, some of the country's biggest companies could qualify. And of course that includes Koch Industries. And Cargill and Dell and Bechtel and Mars, among dozens and dozens of others.
Now, most of these companies aren't the kinds of political attention-seekers that Hobby Lobby and Conestoga chose to be. One hopes. One also hopes that these companies want to provide a welcoming and supportive working environment for all of their employees, even the ones who have lady parts. They're also not all employers whose religious beliefs trump, you know, reality and science and biology. But it might take all that to make them want to opt out. Hating Obamacare is about all they'll need, now. Because it's not like Alito and Scalia are actually going to be taking them through catechism, determining whether they really do have these religious beliefs.