5 important Supreme Court labor and employment law decisions of 2014

The Supreme Court weighed in on some key labor and employment cases in 2014, including two ERISA cases and one challenge to certain requirements of the Affordable Care Act. The decisions promise to have significant ramifications for employers and benefit plans.

For religious reasons, three private companies objected to including coverage for certain forms of contraception in their employer-provided health care plans, as required under the ACA. The Supreme Court, in an opinion bound to have significant ramifications, determined that the HHS regulations create a substantial burden on the company owners’ religious exercise and held that the companies did not have to follow the regulation.