The Supreme Court Has a Nasty Surprise in Store for Business
By jettisoning the precedent that reaffirmed Roe, the justices will give lower courts and state legislators more license to force companies to take sides in political battles.
Workers will have a say, too.
Photographer: Alisha Jucevic/Bloomberg
Everyone can agree that overturning Roe v. Wade will have major consequences for individual women in the US. Less obvious is the impact on American corporations that will emerge from the Supreme Court’s expected simultaneous reversal of Planned Parenthood v. Casey — the 1992 decision that emphasized the value of upholding precedent and avoiding social upheaval to justify keeping Roe in place.
By overturning Casey, the court will send a clear message to state legislators that it is open season for them to pass blatantly unconstitutional laws in the hopes that the justices might reverse more precedents. Legislatures can be expected to pass laws barring companies from paying for out-of-state abortions, for example, and reversing well-established rights like gay marriage and even access to some forms of contraception.