The Huffington Post’s screaming headline reads “SUPREMES SAVING WORST DECISION FOR LAST?” Subheadlines: “FEAR: Businesses Could Dodge Laws Due To ‘Religious Liberty’… Public Unions Could Be Gutted…” With a Supreme Court that has now for several years wiped away many of the “givens” of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, for those who considered birth control a “given” of American life, the HufPo’s AP story has an ominious ring: “The Supreme Court is poised to deliver its verdict in a case that weighs the religious rights of employers and the right of women to the birth control of their choice.”

If so, it’ll be one more instance in which the court consolidates the belief of some that the Supreme Court is is an activist, perhaps radical, court in some of its rulings. Because a new poll suggests the public is solidly OPPOSED to rolling back the use of contraceptives. The Chicago Tribune reports:

A majority of Americans oppose letting employers, based on their religious views, exclude certain contraceptives from workers’ insurance coverage, says a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll ahead of a U.S. Supreme Court decision expected on Monday.

Here’s how reporter Joan Biskupic frames the issue:

In one of the most closely watched cases of the year, the nine-member court will weigh whether for-profit corporations may raise religious objections to a mandate in President Barack Obama’s signature 2010 healthcare law that their insurance cover contraceptives.

It brings to the forefront thorny questions of religious freedom and reproductive rights, along with enduring politicking over the law known as Obamacare, itself broadly upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012.

The poll asked whether employers should be able to choose what forms of contraceptives their health plans provide based on their religious beliefs. Of those responding, 53 percent disagreed and 35 percent agreed. Of those surveyed, 12 percent said they did not know.

That is a very solid margin.

More about the case:

In the case, two family-owned companies, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties, challenged the insurance requirement for certain employee birth control devices and methods as a violation of a 1993 religious-freedom law. The Oklahoma based arts-and-crafts retailer Hobby Lobby is controlled by evangelical Christians, and the Pennsylvania-based cabinet-manufacturer Conestoga Wood Specialties is owned by Mennonites. The healthcare law already exempts churches and religious-run entities from the contraceptive mandate.

The companies, and others involved in related lawsuits, do not oppose every type of birth control. Some object only to emergency contraceptive methods, such as the “morning-after” pill, which they view as akin to abortion.

The Obama administration contends for-profit corporations, even closely held ones, do not exercise religious rights as individuals do and are not covered by the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

If the court in essences puts controls on contraception, don’t expect it to stop there. It’ll likely spark start a whole new series of legal actions aimed at chipping away not just at health care reform but the “given” of contraception use by those who choose to use it. The question will then become more than a legal one: will this be a wedge issue the GOP can use against Democrats and the Democratic political coalition? Or will this be an issue that would backfire on conservatives? Or is this an issue that even within the GOP would spark divisions and wouldn’t be a partisan issue.

And, the biggest issue: whether by the time the court is done, and some years into the 21st century, would the “right” to contraception and having it funded be far less than it was on June 29, 2014?

A CROSS SECTION OF TWEETS ON THE UPCOMING RULING:

JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.

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