“They contend that the government is coercing them to violate their religious beliefs by threatening to impose severe monetary penalties unless they either directly provide coverage for objectionable contraceptives through their group health plans or indirectly provide, trigger, and facilitate that objectionable coverage through the accommodation process”.
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A federal appeals court on Thursday sided for the first time against an Obama administration policy intended make sure the employees of not-for-profit religious organizations can get birth control at no cost. A conflict among appellate courts increases the chances the justices will accept the case.
A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled against ObamaCare’s birth control mandate in a decision that could invite a Supreme Court review.
Under the ACA, as interpreted in several rulings by the Obama administration (partly encouraged by prior temporary orders of the Supreme Court), non-profit organizations run by religiously devout groups or individuals have two ways to avoid providing access to birth control.
A string of appeals courts has said the government’s accommodation takes care of the problem. For one, the court focused on the burden a financial penalty would create for a religious not-for-profit rather than the burden imposed by a form. Such a notice, the panel ruled, would be “less onerous” than the alternatives the government has devised, and the entities would not be providing any information about their insurers to aid the government in starting coverage, the panel said.
The 8th Circuit also ruled that the government’s current accommodation for nonprofits did not fulfill the Religious Freedom Restoration Act’s requirement, where a morally burdensome regulation must use the “least restrictive means” of accomplishing its goal.
14-1507, and Dordt College v. Burwell, 14-2726, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (St. Louis).
Cornerstone University, based in Grand Rapids, had challenged the so-called contraceptive mandate in federal court along with Dordt College, a small religious school in Iowa.
Under ObamaCare, employer healthcare plans are required to cover all federally approved forms of birth control. Only four of the nine justices must vote to hear a case in order for the court to take it. The Supreme Court has already granted stays in a number of the cases that have come out of the circuit courts, temporarily stopping the government from enforcing the mandate. “But if one sincerely believes that completing [the opt-out form] or HHS Notice will result in conscience-violating consequences, what some might consider an otherwise neutral act is a burden too heavy to bear”, wrote Judge Roger L. Wollman, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, joined by judges William D. Benton and Steven M. Colloton, both appointees of President George W. Bush.
“The government keeps telling the Supreme Court “Move along, nothing important here” in hopes that the court will ignore this crucial issue”.
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[Administration has been aided by Supreme Court ruling]. Some of them had been scheduled, but then were postponed, presumably until all of the cases are ready.
