Posted on 03/10/2015 2:26:27 PM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON — In a potentially groundbreaking decision, the U.S. Supreme Court nullified a federal court ruling against the University of Notre Dame on the HHS contraception mandate and sent it back for reconsideration by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The university is “gratified” by the decision, said its vice president of public affairs and communications, Paul Browne. Notre Dame officials had requested the case be remanded by the court in light of the Hobby Lobby decision last June.
“Notre Dame continues to challenge the federal mandate as an infringement on our fundamental right to the free exercise of our Catholic faith,” Browne said.
Notre Dame is one of well over 100 nonprofit institutions to sue the federal government over a mandate requiring that employers provide health-care plans covering contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can cause early abortions.
After the initial mandate was announced, hundreds of organizations, churches and business across the country voiced their religious objection. The government subsequently developed an “accommodation,” under which nonprofit employers who religiously objected to offering such coverage could send a notice of objection to a third party, which would then offer the coverage.
Notre Dame and other plaintiffs have argued that they would still be violating their religious convictions by cooperating in such a way with the contraception coverage, which they believe to be immoral.
The university’s request for an injunction offering protection from the mandate was initially denied, and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling last February. The university then appealed its case to the Supreme Court.
The contraception mandate “violated our religious beliefs by requiring Notre Dame’s participation in a regulatory scheme to provide abortion-inducing products, contraceptives and sterilization,” Browne stated.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
Ping!
Should be interesting to see the results of this reconsideration. Curious as to how ‘Obama” that court is.
Good news. And I’m pleased to see that it’s Notre Dame, which has not always been reliably Catholic in recent times.
It’s not good news.
SCOTUS passed the ball to the 7th Circuit.
There’s no guarantee the “reconsideration” won’t result in the same outcome, and then we’re back to SCOTUS again, if they decide to take it up, again.
All of the entire FEDGOV needs to be shut down, all the alphabet agencies shuttered, and a HARD RESTART needs to sorely be done.
News flash: ALL Supreme Court decisions are “potentially groundbreaking”.
Indeed!
7th Circuit is Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
Thanks NYer.
“It would be pretty tough for the lower court to find that a religious order had a lesser freedom of religion than did a private business.”
One would certainly think so.
In today’s world if it’s a liberal court, I don’t find it hard to believe they’d rationalize their decision.
Excellent point....and I think the Supremes are telling the lower court just that. They didn’t just send it back.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.