The sorry ineptitude of the Supreme Court's contraception decision

Thanks to the obstructionism of Senate Republicans, the Supreme Court is incapable of its doing job

The pill.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Image courtesy iStock)

So much for deciding the law of the land. On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a brief, unsigned, unanimous opinion in Zubik v. Burwell, the lead in a series of cases dealing with the requirement under the Affordable Care Act that employers, even religious ones, cover contraception. The opinion was unanimous, however, only because it conspicuously refused to actually decide anything.

The decision reflects not a consensus but a Court divided 4-4 on many crucial legal disputes by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Until the vacant seat is filled, these deadlocks (whether explicit or poorly concealed by unanimous opinions that kick the cases back to the lower courts) will continue to pile up.

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Scott Lemieux

Scott Lemieux is a professor of political science at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y., with a focus on the Supreme Court and constitutional law. He is a frequent contributor to the American Prospect and blogs for Lawyers, Guns and Money.