Casey Harper reports for the Daily Caller on the latest U.S. Supreme Court case tied to the Affordable Care Act.
Obamacare will go before the Supreme Court again Wednesday, this time to decide the constitutionality of the law’s contraception mandate.
The case considers Obamacare’s rule requiring nonprofit employers to provide contraception coverage as part of insurance plans. Rev. David Zubik, the Catholic bishop for Pittsburgh, is leading the charge in the case, which consolidated the complaints of objecting Christian universities and groups like Little Sisters of the Poor.
Hobby Lobby won a Supreme Court case last year that allowed businesses to opt out of providing certain contraceptives for religious reasons, but it did not extend to nonprofits. The Obama administration hoped to appease religious groups by allowing them to submit an exemption form and allow a third party to provide it instead. But the groups have still taken issue with this and sued. Now the case is before the Supreme Court.
The groups say they are still involved in the process of providing the contraceptives by facilitating the coverage. They say the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) protects them from having to violate their consciences by participating in providing contraception, even if they don’t pay for it. RFRA law states there must be a compelling government interest for violating sincerely held religious beliefs and that the violation must be done in the least restrictive way possible. The groups argue Obamacare has not met that burden.
