Posted by Kromey at 2:16pm Jun 30 '14In a 5-4 ruling, SCOTUS ruled that in-home healthcare workers cannot be mandated by the state to pay dues for union membership.
They limited their decision specifically to the public/private nature of in-home healthcare workers who are hired and fired by private individuals -- specifically, they ruled they're not "full-fledged public workers", and thus not bound by Illinois state law that foists union dues on public workers whether they want to be unionized or not.
In the majority opinion, however, Justice Alito did state that the precedent that allows states to force public workers to pay union dues was "distasteful" and "anomalous" -- perhaps signaling that its time is numbered.
In another 5-4 ruling, SCOTUS ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, stating that the federal government has no authority to require a private business to pay for contraceptives they find morally objectionable.
Naturally this is being painted as "denying access" to birth control, but of course it's nothing of the sort -- no one is saying the women affected can't buy birth control themselves, nor that they can't go to the exchanges to get another plan that would cover birth control.