Colorado Nuns appeal birth control ruling to Supreme Court

Attorneys for Little Sisters of the Poor and four Oklahoma Christian colleges announced Thursday, July 23, 2015 that they will appeal the previous week’s ruling from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver that found that President Obama’s health care law adequately protects them from having to provide coverage of contraception for their employees. They must now allow their employees to have contraception coverage, the Huffington Post reports.

Recognizing that some religious groups oppose some or all of those methods, the regulation automatically exempts “religious employers” like churches, which exist to inculcate religious values and primarily employ and serve people who share their religious tenets.

On July 14, the 10th Circuit Court ruled that because the Little Sisters had the option of signing the form, they failed to show that the mandate required a substantial burden on their free exercise of religion.

Today, they’ve made good on that promise by appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court, which makes the second time in just two short years they’ve had to ask the high court to intervene because the government is trying to force the Little Sisters to choose between their faith and continuing their work serving the elderly poor.

The Supreme Court has also ruled directly on the mandate.

Religious nonprofits say they are still complicit in connecting their employees with coverage.

“In America, judges and government bureaucrats have no authority to tell the Little Sisters what is moral or immoral”, said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and lead attorney for the Little Sisters of the Poor.

If the justices take up the case it would be heard and decided before the end of June 2016.

Now, the Little Sisters are asking the Supreme Court for protection. “We don’t know how many of those employees want or need access to contraceptives, but not a single nun is being forced to pay for those medications under the Affordable Care Act”, wrote Simon Brown of Americans United.

“The government is willing to exempt big companies like Exxon, Chevron, and Pepsi Bottling, but it won’t leave the Little Sisters alone”. The Becket Fund and Supreme Court advocate Paul Clement (the same legal team that won the Hobby Lobby case) filed the petition on behalf of the Little Sisters, as well as a handful of other groups.