Supreme Court Obamacare Hearing: SCOTUS Agrees to Hear Religious Groups

Under the government’s workaround, groups such as the Little Sisters of the Poor would notify their insurance plans of their religious objections, shifting the obligation to offer contraceptive coverage from the nuns to the managers of the plan.

The groups say that this accommodation is not good enough, as it would make them complicit in the contraception coverage.

“We have known all along that Obamacare’s HHS mandate is a flagrant violation of religious freedom and I am pleased that the courts will now have an opportunity to right this wrong”.

The sisters applied for and received a temporary injunction from the mandate in August and appealed their case to the Supreme Court.

It will pit issues of women’s right to equal health care against constitutionally protected religious freedoms.

To be eligible for the government’s accommodation, a religious organization must certify to its insurance company that it opposes coverage for contraceptives, or it must send a letter to the government saying so and provide the name of its insurance company.

In February 2012, the federal government announced an accommodation for faith-based groups: their insurers would foot the bill for contraceptives if they fill out a government document.

The Obama administration, which has been fighting the challenges all across the country, wanted the Supreme Court to take up the issue of religious nonprofits, though it had urged the justices to take a single case, one originally brought by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington and other Catholic organizations.

Seven-out-of-eight federal appeals courts have upheld the notification provision, agreeing that it is a the most feasible way of accommodating competing religious beliefs, while at the same time providing birth control coverage for those who want it.

“We look forward to the argument before the Supreme Court, which we hope will reverse the appeals courts’ rulings and ensure that people of faith are not punished for making decisions consistent with that faith”, said David Cortman, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents Geneva College and Southern Nazarene University.

On Friday, the justices said that they would hear several different cases in one combined case to decide whether the blanket exclusions that have been granted to churches and other houses of worship should be extended to religious nonprofits, like colleges, hospitals, and charities. Last year, a landmark case brought against the government by Hobby Lobby said the health care law’s contraception mandate violated for-profit businesses rights.

Many religiously-affiliated organizations – including employers, nonprofits, hospitals and universities – still object to the revised guidelines. The administration says it can’t legally compel church plans to comply with the contraceptive mandate, though the government says Little Sisters nonetheless must provide notice of its religious objection.

Employers that do not comply with the mandate face hefty fines as a penalty. The court will hear arguments in late March and rule on the matter by the end of June.