Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other nose begins. . .(Burwell v. Hobby Lobby -- opinion of four Supreme Court Justices) - June 30, 2014

from SCOTUS blog summation (posted June 30, 2014): Justice Ginsburg begins to summarize her dissent. She is celebrating twenty years on the court, and even received a service pin at the Court’s annual employee-recognition ceremony earlier this month. (As did her secretary.) “Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan, and I find in [RFRA] no design to permit the opt-outs in question,” Ginsburg says. “Reading the Act expansively, as the Court does, raises a host of ‘Me, too’ questions. Can an employer in business for profit opt out of coverage for blood transfusions, vaccinations, antidepressants, or medications derived from pigs, based on the sincerely held religious beliefs opposing those medical practices?” And what about the employer whose religious faith teaches that “it is sinful to employ a single woman without her father’s consent, or married women, without their husbands’ consent,” she continues. “Can those employers opt out of Title VII’s ban on gender discrimination in employment?” She quotes “a wise legal scholar” (Zechariah Chafee, as the written opinion notes) who “famously said of the First Amendment’s Free Speech guarantee: ‘Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other [person’s] nose begins.’ The dissenters believe the same is true of the Free Exercise Clause, and that Congress meant RFRA to be interpreted in line with that principle.” Ginsburg keeps rhetorically swinging for several minutes, though never hits the nose of Justice Alito, who maintains a respectful gaze. “In sum, today’s potentially sweeping decision minimizes the government’s compelling interest in uniform compliance with laws governing workplaces, in particular, the Affordable Care Act,” she says. “And it discounts the disadvantages religion-based opt outs impose on others, in particular, employees who do not share their employer’s religious beliefs.” “Our cosmopolitan nation is made up of people of almost every conceivable religious preference,” Ginsburg concludes. “In passing RFRA, Congress did not alter a tradition in which one person’s right to free exercise of her religion must be kept in harmony with the rights of her fellow citizens, and with the common good.” http://www.scotusblog.com/2014/06/a-view-from-the-court-justice-alito-has-his-day-in-finale/