Tag Archives: Topic: Insurance

LifeNews: The lawsuit was brought on behalf four brothers, Terrence, John, James and Christopher Nagle and their family-owned business, M&N Plastics, Inc. The case has been assigned to Federal District Judge Victoria A. Roberts.

Bob Smietana of The Tennessean at the ShrevePort Times: The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds arguing that a Bible publisher isn’t religious enough to qualify as a religious employer,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal council for Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group that represents Tyndale.

CNBC: Get ready for the Internal Revenue Service to play a dominant role in health care. When Obamacare takes full effect next year, the agency will enforce most of the laws involved in the reform—even deciding who gets included in the health-care mandate.

MySanAntonio.com: The lawsuit says that the Affordable Care Act was held to be a tax for purposes of the U.S. Constitution, but that it was enacted in violation of a constitutional provision that requires revenue-raising bills to originate in the U.S. House . . . Hotze’s lawsuit also says the federal law violates the Fifth Amendment “by requiring Plaintiffs to transfer their wealth directly to others without a ‘public use,’” and that it “violates federalism by compelling a massive transfer in wealth away from Texans without complying with constitutional requirements.

Ed Whelan at NRO: Back in 2011 when I was the first to highlight the extraordinary position against religious liberty that the Obama administration adopted in the Hosanna-Tabor case, I elicited a tizzy on the Left when I raised the possibility that the administration’s hostility to the ministerial exception to federal antidiscrimination laws was part and parcel of a broader ideological agenda that would have gay causes trump religious liberty. The particular case of Hosanna-Tabor had nothing to do with issues of homosexuality, the critics observed, so they claimed not to see the connection.

Lee Hieb at WND: The big picture is: This is a three-step shell game to bring about the death of private practice medicine in America. Here is how it will work.

Warren Richey of Christian Science Monitor at MinnPost: Matt Bowman, lead counsel for Tyndale House, claimed victory on Monday when word of the court’s action circulated. “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” he said in a statement. “The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds arguing that a Bible publisher isn’t religious enough to qualify as a religious employer.”

Michael Foust of BP on Christian Examiner: The legal group Alliance Defending Freedom says the government’s desire to withdraw its own appeal is a good sign for religious liberty. ADF is representing Tyndale. “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” said ADF senior legal counsel Matt Bowman. “The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds arguing that a Bible publisher isn’t religious enough to qualify as a religious employer. For the government to say that a Bible publisher isn’t religious is outrageous, and now the Obama administration has had to retreat in court.”

One News Now: The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds to argue that a Bible publisher isn’t religious enough to qualify as a religious employer,” says Bowman. “For the government to say that a Bible publisher isn’t religious is outrageous – and now the Obama administration had to retreat in court.”

Baptist Press on Patheos: “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” said ADF senior legal counsel Matt Bowman. “The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds arguing that a Bible publisher isn’t religious enough to qualify as a religious employer. For the government to say that a Bible publisher isn’t religious is outrageous, and now the Obama administration has had to retreat in court.”

Christian Post: “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” Bowman said. “The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds arguing that a Bible publisher isn’t religious enough to qualify as a religious employer. For the government to say that a Bible publisher isn’t religious is outrageous, and now the Obama administration has had to retreat in court.”

Examiner.com: “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds arguing that a Bible publisher isn’t religious enough to qualify as a religious employer.”

Breitbart: “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” Senior Legal Counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom Matt Bowman told LifeSiteNews. “The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds arguing that a Bible publisher isn’t religious enough to qualify as a religious employer.”

Christian Science Monitor: Matt Bowman, lead counsel for Tyndale House, claimed victory on Monday when word of the court’s action circulated. “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” he said in a statement. “The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds arguing that a Bible publisher isn’t religious enough to qualify as a religious employer.” Mr. Bowman, a lawyer with the conservative public interest group Alliance Defending Freedom, said the administration’s move was a “retreat” in court. “We will continue to argue that the administration cannot disregard the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom for all family business owners and must offer a comprehensive exemption to the mandate,” he said.

Star Tribune: Legalizing same-sex marriage will eventually cost the state about $678,000 a year, a new report has found. The new wrinkle will send a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage to another committee test in the Minnesota House on Monday. The measure could then go to the House floor in coming days.

t the government’s own request, a federal appellate court Friday dismissed the Obama administration’s appeal of an order that stopped the president from enforcing his abortion pill mandate against a Bible publisher. The administration’s retreat marks the first total appellate victory on a preliminary injunction in any abortion pill mandate case.

Volokh Conspiracy: Last week, several small business owners and individuals filed suit challenging the legality of an IRS rule purporting to authorize tax credits for the purchase of qualifying health insurance policies in federal exchanges.

Deseret News (5/3): Faith plays a role in the lives of believers no matter what they are doing,” said attorney Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing Hercules. “It’s not possible to declare areas of life, like business or education or health care, as areas where religion is banished by the government.”

WorldNetDaily: Apparently, ADF said, Obama is nervous “about trying to defend its position that a Bible publisher is not religious enough for a religious exemption to the mandate.” “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds arguing that a Bible publisher isn’t religious enough to qualify as a religious employer. For the government to say that a Bible publisher isn’t religious is outrageous, and now the Obama administration has had to retreat in court. “We will continue to argue that the administration cannot disregard the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom for all family business owners and must offer a comprehensive exemption to the mandate,” Bowman added.

Life News: Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys and allied attorneys are also litigating nine other lawsuits against the mandate. The lawsuits represent a large cross-section of Protestants and Catholics who object to the mandate. More than 100 lawsuits have been filed in total.The court’s order was the third nationwide against the mandate and the second obtained by Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys.

AZ Republic: The move is a response to lobbying from Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, who says Medicaid expansion would subsidize abortions — a claim that puts in a political vise anti-abortion GOP lawmakers who back the governor’s proposal . . . Herrod first raised the abortion issue in late March in a letter to Brewer, using an opinion from a Christian legal-defense organization to argue that the draft Medicaid legislation should be amended to disqualify the non-profit women’s health provider Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving public money.

Rasmussen: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 59% of Likely U.S. Voters think free market competition would do more to reduce health care costs than more government regulation.

AFLC: Late yesterday, the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging the constitutionality of the Obama administration’s HHS “contraception” mandate.  The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Johnson Welded Products, Inc. (“JWP”), a family owned and operated company in Ohio, and its President and principal owner, Ms. Lilli Johnson, a Catholic, who opposes the HHS mandate based on her sincerely-held religious beliefs.

Americans for Tax Reform: sked about Senator Max Baucus’s (D-Mont.) recent “train wreck” comments, President Obama today said, “A huge chunk of it [Obamacare] has already been implemented.” Unmentioned was the wave of destructive Obamacare tax increases that will begin to hit Americans during the next tax filing season and beyond . . .

LIfeNews: The American Center for Law & Justice has filed its opening brief in Gilardi v. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, an appeal pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Rutland Herald: Leaders in the medical and LGBT communities are celebrating a new health bulletin they say will require insurance companies to cover “medically necessary services” for transgender Vermonters — a mandate that will include gender-reassignment surgery.

The HIll: House Republicans and Democrats have joined together to re-introduce a bill that would expand the religious conscience exemptions under ObamaCare. Under the Equitable Access to Care and Health (EACH) Act, individuals would have the option of being exempted from the Affordable Healthcare Act’s mandate to buy health insurance.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “This is a small family business. Many of the employees are part of the family,” said Matt Bowman, attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based firm representing Seneca. “Yet the government is forcing them to violate their religious beliefs [as] a price of doing business in America.”

R.R. Reno of First Things at Imprimis (Hillsdale College): RELIGIOUS LIBERTY is being redefined in America, or at least many would like it to be. Our secular establishment wants to reduce the autonomy of religious institutions and limit the influence of faith in the public square. The reason is not hard to grasp. In America, “religion” largely means Christianity, and today our secular culture views orthodox Christian churches as troublesome, retrograde, and reactionary forces. They’re seen as anti-science, anti-gay, and anti-women—which is to say anti-progress as the Left defines progress.

Liberty Counsel: Today, Liberty Counsel filed its final brief in Liberty University v. Geithner before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals hears our case against ObamaCare on May 16. Liberty Counsel represents Liberty University and two private individuals in this case

Life Site News: Bowman, the senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom who represented the plaintiffs in the case, said: “This is a family that provides generous benefits in their business and they want to be free to live according to their faith, but this Obamacare mandate is coercing them to violate their conscience.”

Joe Wolverton, II at The New American: n a statement issued to LifeNews, the attorney from the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing Seneca Hardwood, explained why his organization is taking on the federal government.
Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman told LifeNews: All Americans, including job creators and providers, should be free to live according to their faith rather than be forced into violating their own consciences. The court has done the right thing in issuing an order against the administration’s abortion pill mandate, just as many other courts have done. For the many family-run businesses affected by the mandate, the court stated it well: “the mandate’s requirements impose a substantial burden on their exercise of religion.”

Ed Whelan at NRO: But as I explained of one such ruling (by the Tenth Circuit in the Hobby Lobby case), what those courts are really ruling, without understanding what they are doing, is that an employer’s refusal to provide health insurance coverage for contraceptives or abortifacients cannot be an exercise of religion. Such a ruling is patently wrong, as the only relevant question for purposes of the exercise of religion element is whether the objector is acting from a sincerely held religious conviction.

Huffington Post: “This is a family that provides generous benefits in their business and they want to be free to live according to their faith, but this Obamacare mandate is coercing them to violate their conscious,” said Matt Bowman, the senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom who represented the plaintiffs in the case.

The Hill: The other retiring Democrats are Sens. Tom Harkin (Iowa), Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), Tim Johnson (S.D.), Carl Levin (Mich.) and Frank Lautenberg (N.J.).

AP: Rejecting the Medicaid expansion in the federal health care law could have unexpected consequences for states where Republican lawmakers remain steadfastly opposed to what they scorn as “Obamacare.”

All Americans, including job creators and providers, should be free to live according to their faith rather than be forced into violating their own consciences. The court has done the right thing in issuing an order against the administration’s abortion pill mandate, just as many other courts have done. For the many family-run businesses affected by the mandate, the court stated it well: ‘the mandate’s requirements impose a substantial burden on their exercise of religion.

LifeNews: Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman responded to the decision. His firm is helping Seneca Hardwood Lumber Co. in its case against the Obama administration. He told LifeNews: “All Americans, including job creators and providers, should be free to live according to their faith rather than be forced into violating their own consciences. The court has done the right thing in issuing an order against the administration’s abortion pill mandate, just as many other courts have done. For the many family-run businesses affected by the mandate, the court stated it well: ‘the mandate’s requirements impose a substantial burden on their exercise of religion.’”

Ed Whelan at National Review: Greenhouse is wrong that, in the cases against the HHS contraceptive mandate, plaintiffs “challenging the requirement for employer-provided health insurance to cover birth control almost invariably train their attack on emergency contraception.” There in in fact a general divide between the Catholic plaintiffs, whose objections apply to contraceptives as well as abortifacients, and the non-Catholic Christian plaintiffs, whose objections are indeed generally directed at the possible abortifacient effect of emergency contraceptives and of copper IUDs. But let’s unpack Greenhouse’s more serious errors and omissions:

Alan Sears at NC Register: Over the past few decades, attempts to limit religious freedom in the public square have expanded into what is nearing a hostile exile.

AP: Arkansas’ plan to use federal money to buy private insurance for low-income residents won final approval from state lawmakers Wednesday, endorsing a model that several other states are eyeing as a possible alternative to expanding Medicaid.

Seattle Post Intelligencer: A Republican-dominated coalition in the state Senate has blocked discussion on a plan to require insurers to cover abortion.

AP: Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana confronted Obama’s health secretary Wednesday during a routine budget hearing that turned tense.

The Hill: The Health and Human Services Department has already begun laying the groundwork to raise awareness of the law’s insurance exchanges, which are scheduled to open their enrollment periods in October.

Religion Clause Blog: In Priests for Life v. Sebelius, (ED NY, April 12, 2013), a New York federal district court dismissed on ripeness grounds a challenge by a non-profit Catholic organization to the contraceptive coverage mandate under the Affordable Care Act.

USA Today: Republicans in the Pennsylvania House on Monday pushed out of committee a bill that would prevent most coverage for abortions under the health exchange in Pennsylvania being set up as part of the federal health care overhaul.

Charisma News: Alliance Defending Freedom has submitted official comments to the Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of 22 Catholic colleges and higher-education programs and four Protestant colleges explaining their objections to the Obama administration’s abortion-pill mandate.

Alliance Defending Freedom has submitted official comments to the Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of 22 Catholic colleges and higher education programs and four Protestant colleges explaining their objections to the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate.

McPherson Sentinel: In its lawsuit against Sebelius, Hercules Industries (a Colorado-based manufacturer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning units owned and operated by the Newland family) is represented by The Alliance Defending Freedom, a public interest legal foundation. In its separate lawsuit against HHS, Colorado Christian University (a nondenominational Christian liberal arts university lead by former U.S. Senator Bill Armstrong) is represented by the public interest legal foundation called The Becket Fund. Huelskamp released this statement . . .

LifeSiteNews: The Alliance Defending Freedom also published a statement: The Mandate and suggested “accommodations” in the NPRM blatantly violate the right to religious freedom protected throughout federal law, including under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act… and the First Amendment the U.S. Constitution. The NPRM’s refusal to expand the Mandate’s exemption beyond houses of worship is offensive because it drastically minimizes what counts as a religious employer. Applying the Mandate to any entity or individual possessing a religious objection is illegal. No other federal rule has so narrowly and discriminatorily defined what it means to exercise religious conscience, and no regulation has ever so directly violate plain statutory and constitutional religious freedoms. The NPRM does nothing to change that fact.

Heritage Foundation: As Alliance Defending Freedom wrote on Monday on behalf of over 20 Catholic colleges, “No other federal rule has so narrowly and discriminatorily defined what it means to exercise religious conscience, and no regulation has ever so directly violated plain statutory and constitutional religious freedoms. The NPRM does nothing to change that fact.

CNSNews: Media Research Center President Brent Bozell, based on a new analysis, said ABC, CBS, and NBC “are deliberately censoring news and information” that is negative about Obamacare, an assertion that Stuart Varney, host of Fox’s Varney & Co., said was true, adding, “There is deliberate censorship of information about Obamacare.”

Sarah Torre at Heritage Foundation: As Alliance Defending Freedom wrote in a public comment on Monday on behalf of over 20 Catholic colleges, “No other federal rule has so narrowly and discriminatorily defined what it means to exercise religious conscience, and no regulation has ever so directly violated plain statutory and constitutional religious freedoms. The NPRM does nothing to change that fact.”

Alan Sears at the Christian Post: The fight to preserve the sanctity of life in America requires tireless prayer, vigilance, and determination – and, more and more, that your Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys take on the formidable legal and political juggernaut that is Planned Parenthood.

CBS: A state senate committee in Harrisburg has given its approval to a bill that would have Pennsylvania opt out of abortion coverage as part of the new federal health care law taking effect.

LifeNews: The pro-life group Priests for Life was one of the earliest organizations to file a lawsuit against the Obama administration over its HHS mandate. The mandate compels religious groups to pay for birth control drugs and drugs like ella that can cause very early abortions.

Harvard School of Public Health video is here. Alliance Alert readers may be particularly interested in the exchange that begins at 49 minutes.

The Hill: In a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the 12 secular organizations argue the rules would allow too many employers to duck the requirement that their insurance coverage include contraception.

Washington Times: “As of Aug. 1, 2013, every employee who doesn’t work directly for a church or a diocese will be included in the benefit package,” Mrs. Sebelius said at a forum moderated by Reuters that was held at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Baptist Press: The Obama administration’s continued refusal to provide conscience protections in its abortion/contraception mandate is “a form of religious persecution,” according to the Southern Baptist Convention’s ethics entity. The critique by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) came in a comment submitted Monday (April 8) to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

ProLifeBlogs: The Knights of Columbus filed formal comments with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today, calling on the Administration to rescind the unpopular healthcare mandate that will force Americans of faith to cover medical services that violate their consciences without regard for their First Amendment’s rights.

LifeSiteNews: With the comment period now closed, the Obama administration will begin formally composing the regulatory language of the controversial HHS mandate. The process will likely reinvigorate attempts to have the provision legally overturned, an effort that ultimately seems destined to end at the Supreme Court.

Cardinal Newman Society: The joint comment, prepared by the expert attorneys at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), is posted online here. The comment asks the Obama administration to exempt all organizations with “a religious or moral objection from being forced to provide, offer, pay for or in any way participate in a health insurance plan that covers or specifically triggers coverage of‘contraceptives’ (including abortifacients… ), sterilization, and related education and counseling. Religious freedom requires no less.”

LifeSiteNews: A federal court dismissed the case, on Good Friday, of Ave Maria University’s on the grounds that the federal regulations in question are not in final form. “One thing is clear, Ave Maria is not going to comply with the federal contraception mandate,” university President Jim Towey said in a statement.

The Hill: Groups supporting the contraception mandate in President Obama’s healthcare law collected and formally filed almost 350,000 comments on the policy.

Huffington Post: The number of lawsuits challenging the Obama administration’s contraception coverage mandate climbed to 60 last week, and legal experts on both sides of the issue are predicting that the Supreme Court will take up the issue within the year.

Religion Clause Blog: In MK Chambers Co. v. Department of Health and Human Services, (ED MI, April 3, 2013), a Michigan federal district court refused to issue an ex parte temporary restraining order to prevent enforcement of the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage mandate against a closely-held machinery components company and its two Catholic owners.

The Ruth Institute provides more information.

Charisma News: “Americans should not be forced to pay for abortions with their hard-earned taxpayer dollars,” said Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Steven H. Aden. “Indiana has sought to close the loophole that allows abortionists to obtain those taxpayer dollars. Any state has the freedom to make such determinations according to federal law. We trust the U.S. Supreme Court will ensure that every state retains the freedom to make this determination for its citizens.”

Edward Mechmann at the Archdiocese of New York: But even more fundamental to our opposition to the bill is the understanding that current federal law on abortion is evil. It is a terrible injustice, it is a deplorable violation of basic human rights, and it is an ugly stain on our society’s character. We cannot accept or even obey such laws

SC Times: The Catholic deacon who owns American Manufacturing Company in St. Joseph has received a preliminary injunction protecting him from provisions in the Affordable Care Act. The injunction was issued Tuesday in the 8th Circuit of the federal district courts by U.S. District Court Judge John R. Tunheim. | Hall v. Sebelius, Preliminary Injunction

The Christian Civic League has posted this information page.

The HIll: House GOP leaders are serious about quick, bipartisan action to permanently repeal Medicare’s payment system for doctors, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said Wednesday.

NewsOK: A panel of nine federal appeals court judges will hear oral arguments in Hobby Lobby Stores Inc.’s fight against part of the Affordable Care Act on May 23 in Denver.

Religion Clause Blog: A petition for certiorari (full text) was filed Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court in Big Sky Colony, Inc. v. Montana Department of Labor and Industry.