Written by Don Byrd
Today the U.S. Supreme Court consolidated, and granted cert in, 7 appeals court cases involving religious liberty challenges to the Obama Administration’s contraception mandate accommodation process for religious nonprofit organizations. The process calls for organizations that object on religious grounds to fill out a form or provide other notification to alert their insurer of their refusal to provide contraception coverage to their employees. Insurers and third-party administrators are then on notice that they have to provide the option of such coverage separately to the employees at no cost, without involving the objecting religious nonprofits.
Among other arguments, the plaintiff organizations object to providing such notice because they believe it will facilitate the provision of certain contraceptive methods that violate their religious beliefs. Such involvement, they claim, would make them complicit and thus be a substantial burden on their religious exercise in violation of their religious freedom rights under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
To date seven appeals courts have disagreed, emphasizing that the Affordable Care Act and not the accommodation form triggers the coverage. The Eighth Circuit, however, sided with the plaintiff, setting the stage for the Supreme Court to resolve this disagreement.
You can see earlier coverage of those cases in the posts collected here:
https://bjconline.org/tag/contraception-coverage/
Much more to come on this issue as the Supreme Court sets the date for oral arguments.
