SCOTUS Comparison: Wisconsin v Yoder (1972)

In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014), the craft store chain Hobby Lobby, owned by a devoutly religious family, challenged a provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that required employers to offer health insurance plans covering contraception at no cost to the employee. Hobby Lobby argued that this requirement violated their religious beliefs against the use of certain contraceptives and thus infringed upon their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993. The RFRA prohibits the government from substantially burdening a person's exercise of religion unless it is in the furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest.

The United States Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that closely held for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby could be exempt from laws that violate their religious beliefs, provided that there is a less restrictive means to achieve the law's interest. The Court held that the ACA’s contraception mandate substantially burdened the exercise of religion and that the government had failed to demonstrate that the mandate was the least restrictive means of advancing its interest in providing access to free contraception.