The case, which centers on the Obama administration’s push to make birth control a standard part of health insurance, will determine the extent to which government officials must allow exceptions for people who say their religious principles prevent them from following the law.
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If a religious nonprofit institution notifies the government of its objection, that step “relieves the employer of any obligation to provide, arrange or pay for the coverage to which it objects”, said Solicitor Gen. Donald Verrilli in response.
“It is ridiculous for the federal government to claim, in this day and age, that it can’t figure out how to distribute contraceptives without involving nuns and their health plans”, he said.
The case pits questions of religious liberty against a woman’s right to equal health care access, and it is the fourth time in five years the court will consider a few aspect of what has come to be known as Obamacare.
In June’s Burwell v. Hobby Lobby ruling, the court said owners of closely held corporations can not be forced under Obamacare to provide their employees with certain kinds of contraceptives that violate their religious and moral beliefs.
With reporting from The Associated Press.
These groups include the Little Sisters of the Poor, Houston Baptist University, East Texas Baptist University, and Westminster Theological Seminary, all represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
Religion, birth control, and President Obama’s health-care overhaul are converging in yet another high-profile dispute at the Supreme Court.
He also argued that the administration has already exempted houses of worship, such as temples, mosques and churches, from the mandate but stopped short of doing so when it comes to non-profit, faith-based charities and religious schools and hospitals.
The plaintiffs are primarily Christian colleges and charities that argue the coverage requirement and the federal government’s accommodation violate their rights under the U.S. Religious Freedom Restoration Act by forcing them to participate in providing contraceptives that they believe are immoral.
However, in a later brief, in the Little Sisters of the Poor case, the Obama acknowledged that a circuit split had developed and it agreed the justices should take up the issue.
The high court today granted review of all seven cases pending before it regarding challenges brought by religious nonprofits to regulations implementing the Affordable Care Act’s essential coverage provisions.
Arguments are expected to occur during the March sitting.
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This is troubling not just because it burdens the religious freedom of non-profit employers, but because it puts the federal government in a place it doesn’t belong, deciding who is sufficiently “religious enough” to get an exemption. For-profit companies that objected to the mandate had not been offered the “accommodation” given to religious nonprofits.
