Another SCOTUS Ruling AGAINST Obamacare Contraception Mandate

The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has defended religious freedom (once again), striking another blow against Obamacare’s contraception mandate.  Just the other week, the justices ordered the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to reconsider a ruling that denied a group of Catholic ministries in Michigan the freedom to follow their faith.  The Michigan Catholic Conference and other Catholic ministries took their request to SCOTUS after a surprising lower court decision that would have allowed large IRS fines against the ministries.

Based on their religious beliefs, these ministries cannot provide contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs in their employee health plans.

The federal government has relied heavily on the lower court’s decision in other courts around the country, arguing that it should be able to impose similar burdens on religious ministries like the Little Sisters of the Poor, a convent for nuns.

But now, for the sixth time, SCOTUS has taken steps to protect religious objectors from the contraception mandate.  “The government keeps making the same bad arguments and the Supreme Court keeps rejecting them — every single time.  This is because the government can obviously come up with ways to distribute contraceptives without the forced involvement of Catholic ministries,” says Mark Rienzi, senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

Over 750 plaintiffs in the other non-profit cases have been granted protection from the unconstitutional mandate, which forces religious ministries to either violate their faith or pay massive IRS penalties.

“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.  And it makes it less likely that lower courts will accept arguments the Supreme Court has rejected over and over and over again,” Rienzi said.

The SCOTUS has previously granted relief to the following religious objectors to the mandate: Little Sisters of the Poor (December 2013 and January 2014); Hobby Lobby (June 2014); Wheaton College (July 2014); University of Notre Dame (March 2015); Archbishop Zubik and the Diocese of Pittsburgh (April 2015).

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel