U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told Katie Couric that she does not believe her male colleagues who voted on behalf of Hobby Lobby realized the ramifications for women in that decision.
August 1, 2014

In her wide-ranging interview, Bader discussed the ruling in which the all-male majority opinion granted Hobby Lobby the “religious freedom” to exclude certain forms of birth control from their employees’ health insurance coverage.

“Contraception protection is something that every woman must have access to, to control her own destiny," Ginsburg said. "I certainly respect the belief of the Hobby Lobby owners. On the other hand, they have no Constitutional right to foist that belief on the hundreds and hundreds of women who work for them who don’t share that belief. I have never seen the free exercise of religion clause interpreted in such a way."

Couric asked if Ginsburg thought the five male justice who voted in the majority on behalf of Hobby Lobby, “truly understood the ramifications of their decision.”

“I would have to say no,” Ginsburg said.

However, Ginsburg sounded rather optimistic for the future. “Justices continue to think and can change, so I am ever hopeful that if the court has a blind spot today, its eyes will be open tomorrow. …They have wives, they have daughters. By the way, I think daughters can change the perception of their fathers.”

She also addressed the Citizens United case, in which she also dissented. “We have a great tradition in our country of justices who disagree with the court’s opinion, explaining why they disagree. Many of those dissents are now unquestionably the law of the land. …That is my expectation.I may not be around to see it, but it will happen.”

Although she was specifically referring to Citizens United, presumably the same applies to the Hobby Lobby ruling.

You can read the full interview on Yahoo.com

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