One week after Eric Kniffin of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty discussed Obamacare’s threat to religious liberty during a lecture to the John Locke Foundation and Federalist Society, we learn that Becket Fund client Belmont Abbey College has won a round in federal court.
A three-judge U.S. District Court panel has sided with Belmont Abbey College in its case against the Obama administration over the requirement in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that employers must provide free contraceptives in employee insurance plans.
In a decision announced Tuesday, the judges ordered administration officials to rewrite the law, so it will not force religious institutions to offer contraceptives.
Belmont Abbey College, a Roman Catholic institution in Gaston County, had sued the Obama administration over the Obamacare mandate. College officials said it would require the school to act in a manner contradictory to church teachings.
Roman Catholic doctrine is opposed to the use of artificial birth control.
“Christmas came early this year,” Belmont Abbey College President William Thierfelder said in a statement released Wednesday.