Archbishop Lori fights bill opposed to religious liberty

Archbishop William E. Lori joined with Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston July 14 to urge all U.S. senators to reject legislation aiming to compel all employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortifacients.

In a letter sent to all senators, the archbishops outlined how the “misnamed” “Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act of 2014” (S. 2578) would violate federal religious freedom and conscience protections.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wa.), is a response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which exempts closely held for-profit companies from providing insurance coverage for women’s preventive health care services that violate their religious convictions.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’ contraception mandate previously compelled the coverage as part of the Affordable Care Act. Companies that wished not to comply because of religious beliefs were subjected to large fines.

The Senate bill seeks to counter the ruling by curtailing the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), the archbishops wrote. RFRA was at the crux of the Supreme Court ruling.

“Although the bill singles out RFRA by name, the bill also appears to override ‘any other provision of federal law’ that protects religious freedom or rights of conscience regarding health coverage mandates,” the archbishops’ letter states. “These protections could include, among others, longstanding conscience clauses on abortion, such as the Hyde-Weldon amendment. The bill expressly leaves in place only the HHS mandate’s own insufficiently narrow exemption for ‘houses of worship’ and its contested ‘accommodation’ for religious nonprofit organizations.”

What I don't get is that, if the USSC ruled that the offensive provisions of the HHS mandate violated First Amendment "Free exercise of religion" rights, how could the U.S. Congress overturn that? Can the legislative branch overturn the USSC's ruling?

I'll listen f somebody can explain.

I searched a bit for the actual decision, but couldn't find it. Wikipedia sums it up the way I recall hearing about it:

The decision is an interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and does not address whether such corporations are protected by the free-exercise of religion clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution. For such companies, the court directly struck down the contraceptive mandate, a regulation adopted by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), requiring employers to cover certain contraceptives for their female employees. The court said that the mandate was not the least restrictive way to ensure access to contraceptive care, noting that a less restrictive alternative is already being provided for religious non-profits. The ruling could have widespread impact, allowing companies to be religiously exempt from federal laws.

[emphasis added]

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.