Posted on 02/22/2014 3:27:41 PM PST by Libloather
The University of Notre Dame must provide birth control to employees and students after a federal appeals court ruled Friday, a move the school says will force it to violate its religious beliefs.
In a blow to religious colleges and universities across the country, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago denied Notre Dame's request for an injunction to the ObamaCare birth control mandate that requires the school to provide coverage for contraception.
The injunction would have given Notre Dame a temporary reprieve from the birth control mandate, as the Roman Catholic school challenges the rule in court. But the appeals court ruled 2-1 that the school will have to comply with the rule, even before it hears the court's final decision.
The court found Notre Dame "has not yet shown that there is a substantial burden" in complying with the birth control mandate.
"If the government is entitled to require that female contraceptives be provided to women free of charge, we have trouble understanding how signing the form that declares Notre Dame's authorized refusal to pay for contraceptives for its students or staff, and mailing the authorization document to those (insurance) companies, which under federal law are obligated to pick up the tab, could be thought to 'trigger' the provision of female contraceptives," Judge Richard Posner wrote in the majority opinion of the court.
But Judge Joel Flaum sided with Notre Dame in his dissenting opinion.
"Notre Dame tells us that Catholic doctrine prohibits the actions that the government requires it to take," Flaum wrote. "So long as that belief is sincerely held, I believe we should defer to Notre Dame's understanding."
This comes after the Obama administration extended an olive branch to religious institutions. President Obama offered a compromise so that religious groups could let their insurance providers handle the birth control provisions. But Notre Dame and a handful of other religious schools argue this is inadequate because they would still be complicit in providing contraception coverage.
The Catholic church has a long-standing opposition to contraception.
Notre Dame brought the lawsuit against the Department of Health & Human Services, which is administering many of the ObamaCare rules, including the birth control mandate.
The birth control mandate has been challenged by a number of religious universities and businesses. Two religious business owners will argue against the rule before the Supreme Court next month.
A deciding moment for Catholics...if they have to do this what will they do? Either turn into Episcopalians or go to the streets. Wanna’ bet which way they go?
Let’s be real here. If the Founding Fathers had supported a concept such as Freedom of Religion, they would have included it in one of those documents that they created long before the iPhone.
“By their fruits you will know them.”
Let’s hope ND has the courage of its convictions
If the Supreme Court rules the wrong way on this, the First Amendment’s protection of religious liberty is over.
And muslims are exempt from Obamacare?
With enough public outrage the Tyrant in Chief will repeal this aspect of ObamCare.
Which will make it about 30 illegal changes by a dictator.
Judge Napolitano & the Constitution
Note that regardless what activist justices want everybody to think about the constitutionality of Obamacare Democratcare, the Supreme Court has historically clarified that Congress is prohibited from regulating, taxing and spending for public healthcare purposes.
”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress. (emphases added)” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
Of course. They’re also exempt from providing the sodomites with goods and services which would explicitly support sodomy.
The Constitution doesn’t apply in a marxist tyranny.
Clearly ND does NOT have the courage of its convictions. Otherwise they would have never invited our pro-abortion president to speak at its commencement. They sent the message before Obamacare was passed that they would roll over like dogs. This is a feeble attempt at face-saving.
p.s. I have multiple ND grads in my immediate family.
No, it's not. Notre Dame failed that test a long time ago.
In fact, they'd probably have trouble winning a case like this simply because there isn't sufficient evidence to prove that they are a religious institution anymore.
.......exactly!.............to the best of my recollection, Notre Dame as an institution and I am sure 90% or more of it’s faculty and students have been marching to Obama’s drum since circa 2008.
Now the wolf is scratching on their door and they don’t like it.
Shocking just how blatantly our courts ( and Obama) can cancel our God-given constitutionally- recognized rights and liberties.
Luckily, Notre Dame is no longer a Catholic institution.
So all that political fellatio did nothing for them.
The Catholic Church doesn’t get it, the LEFT IS AT WAR WITH OUR COUNTRY.
Fight them or surrender, but don’t think you can make friends with them.
Don’t comply if you feel so strongly. My feelings are they will fold like a cheap whatever.
This is the problem with the courts getting into the business of controlling behaviors with religions at the key. Courts require standing for there to be a case. How does one place the stain of a sin on one's soul on to a microscope slide so it can be submitted to the court as evidence that can be observed by the justices to determine that there is standing or not?
How the hell did the 7th Circus black-robed tyrants get involved in this? Where do they get their “standing”? I wish those bass turds would get a hobby or something and leave the American people alone.
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