Supreme Court will take up new health law dispute

The Supreme Court agreed today to referee another dispute over President Barack Obama's trouble-plagued health care law, whether businesses can use religious objections to escape a requirement to cover birth control for employees.
The justices said they will take up an issue that has divided the lower courts in the face of roughly 40 lawsuits from for-profit companies asking to be spared from having to cover some or all forms of contraception.
Obama's health care law has had a rocky start, with computer glitches causing difficulties for Americans who want to sign up for medical insurance using one of the sites run by the federal government.

There has also been a political cost with opposition Republicans, who would like to repeal the law, hoping they can use it to hammer away at Democrats in next year's congressional elections and Obama's Democratic allies pressing him to get the program functioning smoothly so they can confront Republicans on other issues.
The court will consider two cases. One involves Hobby Lobby Inc., an arts and crafts chain with 13,000 full-time employees. Hobby Lobby won in the lower courts.
The other case is an appeal from Conestoga Wood Specialities Corp., a company that employs 950 people in making wood cabinets. Lower courts rejected the company's claims.

The court said the cases will be combined for arguments, probably in late March. A decision should come by late June.

The cases centre on a provision of the health care law that requires most employers that offer health insurance to their workers to provide a range of preventive health benefits, including contraception.
In both instances, the Christian families that own the companies say that insuring some forms of contraception violates their religious beliefs.
The key issue is whether profit-making corporations can assert religious beliefs under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act or the First Amendment provision guaranteeing Americans the right to believe and worship as they choose. Nearly four years ago, the justices expanded the concept of corporate "personhood," saying in the Citizens United case that corporations have the right to participate in the political process the same way that individuals do.