Supreme Court Takes Up Challenges to Obamacare Birth Control Benefit

“In our own challenge to the mandate, EWTN has been waiting for the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to issue a decision following oral arguments before that court in February 2015”, he explained.

Here’s the key question, a sort of sequel to the 2014 case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby: Is the government’s “accommodation” of religious objectors to contraception itself a violation of religious freedom under the law? Nonprofits with religious affiliations were not addressed in the ruling, which was a 5-4 decision by the court. But it has allowed a few for-profit employers with religious objections to refuse to pay for contraceptives for women.

The Supreme Court will hear its fourth dispute regarding United States President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, the Associated Press reported Friday.

Verrilli notes the government has exempted houses of worship, such as temples, mosques and churches, from the mandate but it has declined to do so for non-profit faith based charities, and religiously affiliated educational institutions and hospitals.

The school’s employees receive health insurance through the Archdiocese of Washington’s group health plan, which has historically excluded coverage for abortion, contraception, and sterilization in keeping with Catholic doctrine, the affidavit said.

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.

While the government has argued that this coverage will ultimately be free because contraception provides “tremendous” health benefits and lowers costs that would otherwise arise from bearing children, critics contend that the costs of the coverage will still eventually be passed on to the objecting employers themselves.

“Employers are no more entitled to interfere with access to insurance coverage for birth control than they are able to dictate how employees can spend their paychecks or what they can do on their days off”.

The case is expected to be heard in March.

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.

But the administration’s attempt to appease religious groups fell flat, and multiple groups, including Little Sisters of the Poor, filed suit arguing that the new rules were still a burden on their rights guaranteed under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the First Amendment.

They are asking to be given a definitive exemption, such as the Supreme Court has previously extended to churches or strictly religious groups.

The Obama administration says they already get an accommodation that “effectively exempts” them from the coverage requirements. But the way the Court rules in Little Sisters and these accompanying cases will be legally and politically significant for a few reasons.

“As Little Sisters of the Poor, we offer the neediest elderly of every race and religion a home where they are welcomed as Christ”. Yet it not only insists on forcing them to participate in the delivery, it argues that their beliefs against participating are wrong and that government officials and judges can tell the Little Sisters what Catholic theology really requires.