A short-handed court threw up its hands and put the best minimalist face it could on a dispute evidently beyond its institutional capacity to resolve. Although the outcome was ambiguous to say the least, the religious organizations that had sued for an exemption from the mandate were quick to declare victory. “Supreme Court rules unanimously in favor of Little Sisters,” proclaimed the website of Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of nuns who run nursing homes and were among dozens of religious groups that had joined the litigation campaign.
Not quite so fast — maybe. It's just possible that the Supreme Court's post-Scalia deadlock has given the administration the opportunity it needs to lift the verbal fog.
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