A federal appeals court blocked the Biden administration‘s requirement that healthcare and insurance groups perform transgender procedures in a case brought by religious doctors who argued the mandate violated their religious beliefs.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Religious Sisters of Mercy and other groups in a unanimous ruling on Friday, saying they are entitled to a permanent injunction against the mandate from the Department of Health and Human Services. The decision echoes a similar 5th Circuit decision that blocked the policy in August.
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The judges determined that HHS and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s interpretation of how Obamacare’s Section 1557 and Title VII apply to transgender procedures conflicts with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
RELIGIOUS GROUPS VICTORIOUS AFTER BIDEN HHS MISSES DATE TO APPEAL RULING AGAINST TRANSGENDER MANDATE
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office represented the religious groups that sued against the Biden administration’s interpretation of the EEOC.
“All the plaintiffs in these cases joyfully serve transgender patients for everything from cancer to the common cold,” Luke Goodrich, senior counsel and vice president at Becket, told the Washington Examiner. “It’s just that certain gender transition procedures they believe based on strong medical evidence can actually be deeply harmful to their patients.”
Judge Lavenski R. Smith, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote the opinion, which was joined by Raymond W. Gruender, another Bush appointee, and Jonathan A. Kobes, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.
The Becket attorney added that while the pair of court rulings provide legal precedent for future lawsuits brought by religious doctors, only the named plaintiffs in the case receive protection from these rulings.
“They can cite these as precedent and get similar protections for themselves,” Goodrich said.
However, the 8th Circuit said one of the groups, the Catholic Benefits Association, which contains “several thousand” members, would not receive protections for all of its members because many of them were seeking protection anonymously.
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“Part of its ruling was you can’t get protection purely anonymously as a member, and so it cut back on the protection for anonymous members of the Catholic Benefits Association,” Goodrich said of the 8th Circuit decision.
The Justice Department represented the government’s position in the case. The administration has 60 days to ask the 8th Circuit for a rehearing and 90 days to appeal to the Supreme Court.
