On Monday, June 30, the Supreme Court gave its verdict on whether for-profit corporations can use religious beliefs to tell female workers which birth control they will cover.  

According to ABC News, in a narrow 5-4 ruling, companies with religious owners are not required to pay for full-range contraceptives under health plans for employees.

The closely watched case put religious freedom up against reproductive rights, today, religious freedom won.  

"Under the standard that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act prescribes, the department of Health and Human Service (HHS) contraceptive mandate is unlawful," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the opinion, which was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy, according to Politico. 

Family-owned companies Hobby Lobby, an arts and crafts retailer based in Oklahoma, and Conestoga Wood Specialties, a supplier of custom wood cabinets based in Pennsylvania, challenged the contraceptive mandate under President Obama's healthcare law which requires employee health insurance to include birth control. The contraceptive mandate already exempts churches and religious institutions. 

The Conestoga Wood Specialties is owned by Mennonites and Hobby Lobby is owned by Evangelical Christians. Both companies argued the mandate violates the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prevents laws that burden a person's right to exercise religious beliefs. The companies also claim they are not opposed to all contraceptive methods but they do not support emergency birth control such as the morning after pill, which they view as "abortion," according to the Chicago Tribune.

During a press briefing in March, Louise Melling, Deputy Legal Director at the American Civil Liberties Union said religious freedom shouldn't be used to discriminate. "If the court goes the way that Hobby Lobby and Conestoga are asking them, this would be the first time that a benefit for employees would be extinguished by its employer. Religious freedom gives us our right to beliefs but it doesn't give our right to impose them on others," Melling said.