WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The U.S. Supreme Court, in a ruling earlier this month, threw out a federal appeals court’s decision that denied the University of Notre Dame an injunction against the federal health care law’s contraception requirement.
The nation’s high court, in a March 9 order, granted the university’s petition for a writ of certiorari, which it filed in October.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts
The justices, in their one-paragraph order, vacated the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit’s Feb. 21, 2014 judgment and remanded the case back to the Seventh Circuit for “further consideration in light of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.”
The June 2014 Supreme Court ruling allowed closely-held, for-profit corporations to be exempt from a law its owners religiously object to if there is a less restrictive means of furthering the law’s interest.
The contraception coverage mandate, which was imposed under President Barack Obama’s health care law, requires employers to offer insurance — including contraception coverage — or they may be fined.
“This is a major blow to the federal government’s contraception mandate. For the past year, the Notre Dame decision has been the centerpiece of the government’s effort to force religious ministries to violate their beliefs or pay fines to the IRS.” said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed an amicus brief in the case.
“As with the Supreme Court’s decisions in Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby, this is a strong signal that the Supreme Court will ultimately reject the government’s narrow view of religious liberty.”
Notre Dame argues that the mandate requires it to provide contraceptives, procedures and drugs that are contrary to its Catholic teaching.
From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by email at [email protected].
