Tag Archives: Topic: Obamacare

Religion Clause Blog: In Sioux Chief Mfg. Co., Inc. v. Sebelius, (WD MO, Feb. 28, 2013), a Missouri federal district court, with the consent of both parties, enjoined enforcement of the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage . . . he complaint (full text) in Armstrong v. Sebelius, (D CO, filed 3/5/2013), alleges . . . Because there was not time to seek judicial relief before Jan. 1, the company (at least temporarily) kept the same coverage to comply with the mandate. An ADF press release reports on the filing of the lawsuit.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a Colorado mortgage banking company co-owned by former U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate.

LifeNews: The Obama administration should understand that it cannot force Americans to abandon their beliefs at the door of the workplace,” says Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “The Constitution simply doesn’t allow the government to involve itself in religion by deciding what faith is, who the faithful are, and when and where their faith may be lived out. Confining our faith to our homes and our churches is not the job of Washington bureaucrats.” “Americans should be free to honor God and live according to their consciences whether they are at home, church, or work,” adds lead counsel Jonathan R. Whitehead, one of nearly 2,200 allied attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom. [more]

NC Register: Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing a number of plaintiffs in HHS cases, also welcomed the proposed legislation. While the Alliance Defending Freedom has argued in court that the federal contraception mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Bowman told the Register that the proposed conscience-rights bill “is more specific; it blocks the administration’s hostility to religion possibly without having to rely on the courts, and it makes court action to protect religious freedom more swift.”

Life News: The new Continuing Resolution introduced in the House of Representatives does not include the conscience protections against the Obama Administration’s HHS mandate that pro-life advocates were hoping for.

Wesley J. Smith at National Review: Alliance Defending Freedom has won another preliminary injunction against the free-birth-control rule based on the religious objections of a business owner, this time for a Missouri plumbing-supply company called Sioux Chief Manufacturing Co. Inc. What is interesting is that the injunction was unopposed by the feds. Welcome, but odd  . . .

Alan E. Sears at the Alliance Defending Freedom: The Obama administration’s notorious abortion pill mandate – which forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy penalties – is taking on water fast, as the reality sinks in with judges across the country that the measure is a massive legal assault on religious freedom.

Human Events: Reuters reports a hitch in Governor Rick Scott’s plans to expand Medicaid coverage, as directed by the ObamaCare plan he once vowed to oppose . . .

LifeNews: If the sequester was supposed to grind government to a halt, you wouldn’t know it by the volumes coming out of Health and Human Services (HHS). On the first afternoon of the President’s doomsday, HHS was unusually productive–pumping out more than 700 new pages of ObamaCare regulations.

MPR: The DFL-controlled Minnesota House has passed a key part of the Obama administration’s health care law — a state-based health insurance exchange. The bill’s chief author called the measure the most significant health reform in 50 years. But abortion restrictions adopted last night could run into trouble with Gov. Mark Dayton.

Hot Air: In a little under an hour, three members of the House Republican caucus will announce a new legislative effort to undo the HHS contraception mandate’s infringement on freedom of religious practice, and prevent the next incursion as well.

Melodika.net: “With another phony compromise, the Obama Administration continues to insult the intelligence of the American people and trample our Constitutionally-guaranteed rights,” said AUL’s President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest, as the Health and Human Services Department released additional regulations for Obamacare. “Our Freedom of Conscience, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment has been violated by Obamacare and these new regulations do not resolve the offense.”

Engage Family Minute: Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys and allied attorneys represent Sioux Chief Manufacturing Co. in a federal lawsuit filed last month to challenge the mandate, which forces employers—regardless of their religious or moral convictions—to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception under threat of heavy penalties.“

Tim Carney at Washington Examiner: Republicans around the country railed against President Obama’s health-care law for four years, but in recent weeks, GOP governors and state legislators have embraced some of the bill’s provisions. How did Republicans learn to stop worrying and love Obamacare? In a word: industry.

LifeSiteNews: An insurance company known for not keeping its contractual obligations has received $340 million in federal loans to set up a health care exchange under ObamaCare. Critics say the only apparent criteria for the loan is the fact that the company is led by a friend of Barack Obama during his community organizer days. She is also a former leader of a George Soros-funded politically radical organization.

Religion Clause Blog: In Gilardi v. Sebelius. (D DC, March 3, 2013), the D.C. federal district court refused to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent enforcement of the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage mandate in a suit by two related for-profit Subchapter S corporations and their Catholic owners.

Evan Bernick at the Bell Towers: As a legal fellow with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, I’ve spent the last few months defending religious employers against the government’s efforts to impose the mandate upon them, even though I’m a pro-choice atheist. I’m proud of having done so. Here, I will argue that those who are concerned with individual rights and the real-world impact of policy choices should stand alongside me, regardless of their religion (or lack thereof). They should do so because (1) the mandate is unjust, and (2) it will hurt those whom it is intended to help.

Ctr. for Law and Religion at St. John’s U.: Whatever policy concerns one might have, it seems to me that the Administration’s categorical exclusion of for-profits in its current proposed rule, and its reliance on certain definitions in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, just is not going to fly in the RFRA context.

Charisma News: “Americans should be free to honor God and live according to their consciences whether they are at home, church or work,” said lead counsel Jonathan R. Whitehead, one of nearly 2,200 allied attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom. “The court was right to stop enforcement of this unconstitutional mandate against Sioux Chief and its owners. They, like all other family-run businesses, have the God-given freedom to live and lead their company according to the values of their faith. American entrepreneurs cannot be forced to surrender their First Amendment freedoms when they go to work.” [more]

Baptist Press: Kellie Fiedorek, litigation counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), said this is a time of “great peril” for religious adherents. In particular, business owners with religious convictions about business, marriage and family are the targets of attacks for refusing to violate their beliefs, she said. “You couldn’t expect an African-American photographer to take a picture of a family who is in the KKK, who is going to wear long white robes and pointy hats,” Fiedorek said. “Similarly, you couldn’t expect a Jewish … baker to bake a cake with swastikas on it and have it say, ‘Happy Birthday to Hitler.’”

A Missouri-based plumbing products manufacturer is the latest company to win a court order against the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate, bringing the total number of court rulings against the mandate to 12 compared to four in its favor.

CNSNews: “This is a principle–this is a constitutional principle–that’s been handed to us from our Founding Fathers, and it’s not something that I think we should be negotiating on,” said Rep. King. “I would like to see the conscience protection language go into that CR, and I’d like to see conservatives band together and refuse to pass the CR until such time as we get that language in there.”

Medill Reports Northwestern.edu: Tyndale’s pro bono attorney, Matthew Bowman of Alliance Defending Freedom, believes the for-profit publishing company should be able to advocate on its own behalf. “I think it’s a pattern throughout the Obama administration’s tenure,” he said, “where they are taking large areas of human activity – like healthcare, or education, or business – and saying that because the government wants to control those areas, the government is going to declare that religious freedom does not exist in those areas.” Bowman said he expects the lawsuit to run through the summer, at least. In the meantime, it will be business as usual at Tyndale House. “We’re not going to do anything different than we’ve been doing for many years: continuing to sell Christian-oriented books and Bibles,” Mark Taylor said (includes Tyndale timeline)

Religion Clause Blog: In Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas v. Sebelius, (ND TX, Feb. 26, 2013), a Texas federal district court dismissed on ripeness grounds a challenge by the Catholic Diocese of Dallas to the contraceptive coverage mandate under the Affordable Care Act.

Religion Clause Blog: In Briscoe v. Sebelius, (D CO, Feb. 27, 2013), a Colorado federal district court refused to grant a temporary restraining order to a for-profit corporation, two related for-profit LLCs and their evangelical Christian owner who were challenging the application of the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage mandate to them.

ADFMedia has created a resource page listing pending HHS suits by state.

Steve Aden was one of several speakers in the Call2Conscience Webcast. | MP3 audio 46:53 mins

Matt Bowman appeared on Stand Up for the Truth | MP3 audio 16:24 mins

Citizen Link: The American Family Association (AFA) in Tupelo says the mandate violates its religious freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and federal law. AFA faces mounting fines if it chooses not to comply.

The Morning Call: Women in Pennsylvania who use the health insurance exchange to be established under the federal health care reform law would not have coverage for abortion even if their health was at stake, according to a bill under consideration in Harrisburg.

CNSNews: The assertion came in the case of Tyndale House Publishers v. Sebelius, a challenge to the Obama administration’s regulation requiring health-care plans to cover sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs . . . “Consistent with the religious beliefs of Tyndale and its owners, Tyndale’s self-insured plan does not and has never covered abortions or abortifacient drugs or devices such as emergency contraception and intrauterine devices,” Tyndale said in its legal complaint, prepared by the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Penna Dexter at Baptist Press: This new policy was supposed to be the miracle that relieved concerns of the Catholic church and all the religious groups and Christian-owned companies who object to providing contraception and/or abortion-inducing drugs under their health plans. Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson wrote of it: “Upon reflection, it seems less like the parting of the Red Sea than a parlor trick.” “Accounting gimmick” is what others are calling it.

NPR: Under revised rules of the Affordable Care Act, religious groups can be exempt from paying their employees’ insurance coverage for birth control. Religious exemptions are nearly as old as the nation and have been on the rise in recent decades.

The Hill: The current continuing resolution, or CR, expires March 27. On Monday, a coalition of groups that oppose abortion called for a new CR that will allow certain non-religious groups not to cover the “morning after” pill in their health plans.

Daily Tar Heel: As implementation of the Affordable Care Act begins to take shape in North Carolina, the question of whether abortions will be covered in the state’s health care exchange remains unanswered.

The Hill: Regulations the Obama administration finalized on Friday will lead to a steep and sudden increase in healthcare costs for young people, the health insurance industry said.

Seattle Post Intelligencer: Setting up what promises to be a contentious reckoning in the Washington state Senate, the House on Friday passed a measure requiring that most insurance carriers in the state cover abortions. House Bill 1044 is intended to ensure that insurers continue covering abortions once bureaucratic hurdles for doing so come into effect next year with the enactment of federal health care reforms. Lawmakers in the House passed the measure by a vote of 53-43, with all but two Democratic votes cast in favor and all but one Republican voting against it.

MarketWatch: By denying coverage to spouses, employers not only save the annual premiums, but also the new fees that went into effect as part of the Affordable Care Act. This year, companies have to pay $1 or $2 “per life” covered on their plans, a sum that jumps to $65 in 2014. And health law guidelines proposed recently mandate coverage of employees’ dependent children (up to age 26), but husbands and wives are optional

Becket Fund at LifeNews: Nine U.S. Senators and two U.S. Representatives, along with the Oklahoma Attorney General and 11 other key groups, filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the Becket Fund’s challenge to the HHS mandate on behalf of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

CNSNews: Republican members of Congress have weighed in on the legal battle being waged over the Obamacare mandate requiring employers to provide contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs to employees.

Information about the Family Research Council webcast and video is here. It runs just over 61 minutes. An extensive description of the event begins: “Religious liberty in America has long been a cherished freedom. In recent decades, reaction to displaying that religion in the public sphere has grown increasingly hostile. What is being done about this slow and methodical attack on the First Freedom? Come hear from those who have battled on the front lines of this issue and have sought to protect the liberty our forefathers handed down. From prayer in schools to speaking against sin in a public place, there are numerous ways that religious liberty has been attacked. It is imperative that we make ourselves aware of the battle fronts and support those who stand as sentinels against encroachment on our first freedom. Join FRC for an informative and important discussion on religious liberty with Kellie Fiedorek, Ken Klukowski, and Adele Keim.”

Christian Post: In addition to Klukowski, the other two guest speakers were Adele Keim, legal counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Kellie Fiedorek, litigation counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom . . . Fiedorek spoke to those gathered about the various legal suits coming up against Christian businessmen by gay rights groups. These included a photographer sued for refusing to take photos at a gay union ceremony and a baker sued for refusing to provide a cake for a gay union reception.

NCPA Policy Digest: The Obama administration issued its long-awaited final rule on essential health benefits that insurers must offer consumers in the individual and small-group market beginning in 2014 under the health care reform law, says Reuters.

Daniel Philpott at Public Discourse: Preserving the freedom to witness to the truths one believes, not merely avoiding cooperation with evil, is what’s primarily at stake in the HHS mandate debate.

Matt Bowman Letter to NY Times: A corporation is simply a group of people acting together. The Supreme Court has ruled many times that corporations can exercise religion. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, protects “any” exercise of religion. That protection applies when families earn a living in business.

Washington Times: The Obama administration’s rule must be finalized by Aug. 1. “We haven’t had to file anything new, because nothing has really changed,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing several religious nonprofits and religiously devout corporate owners who have sued over the mandate. He said the lawsuits will continue and likely pick up by August if the exemption is not broadened to cover all religious employers.

Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review: “Plaintiff Stephen W. Briscoe is a believing and practicing Evangelical Christian,” the brief in the case filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom in federal district court in Colorado explains. Briscoe runs several assisted-living centers and skilled nursing facilities for seniors and “sincerely holds religious beliefs that God mandates respect for the sanctity of each human life and that abortion and abortion-inducing drugs result in the wrongful taking of a human life. Mr. Briscoe seeks to run his businesses in accord with his sincerely held religious beliefs,” the brief reads. Briscoe, who became the first business owner to join over 130 plaintiffs suing over the HHS mandate since the latest insufficient “accommodation” was issued, talked to National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.

LifeSiteNews: Despite the Obama administration urging states to run their own markets for those without health insurance to purchase subsidized plans, the majority have opted to leave the job to the federal government. Twenty-six states opted to let the deadline for forming state insurance exchanges pass on Friday, leaving the Obama administration to handle the details – and the costs – itself.

LifeSiteNews: If the U.S. Catholic bishops cannot rely on the president to protect religious liberty, they will instead lobby Congress. That’s the message of a letter written to Congress by Archbishop William E. Lori lobbying for two legal provisions on behalf of the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Matt Bowman, Daniel Blomberg on World Radio (2/16)

Karen Gushta at the Christian Post: In January (1/14/2013),Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor reported more than 40 cases against the contraception/abortifacient mandate are being pursued in the courts by religious organizations, for-profit businesses, and individuals. Fifteen of these lawsuits have been filed by for-profit businesses or their owners. They all claim writes Baylor,”Their religious consciences preclude them from subsidizing the use of contraceptives and/or abortifacients by participants in their health insurance plans.”

Religion Clause Blog: In Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Secretary of U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, (3rd Cir., Feb. 7, 2013), Judge Rendell in her majority opinion concluded that the Mennonite owners of a wood specialties manufacturing company had failed …

Religion Clause Blog: In Conlon v. Sebelius, (ND IL, Feb. 8, 2013), an Illinois federal district court dismissed on standing and ripeness grounds a challenge to the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage mandate brought by Catholic dioceses and related Catholic Charities organizations in Joliet and Springfield, Illinois, as well as by a Catholic high school.

Michael J. Norton on Koinonia with Tom Brown | MP3 audio 13 mins

Michael J. Norton on WAVA Radio with Don Kroah | MP3 AUDIO 15:28 mins

Matt Bowman at the Daily Caller: In early 1912, the ship that “God Himself couldn’t sink” met a watery grave. And in 2012, President Obama decided to pit his titanic Obamacare against God’s people and their religious freedoms. His ship is taking on water fast.

Missouri Family Policy Council: “All Americans, not just those in church organizations, are guaranteed freedom of conscience in their daily lives and in their work,” commented Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom. “The government has no business putting religious freedom on the negotiating table, or picking and choosing who is allowed to exercise their faith.”

IFAWebNews: Dr. Ben Carson, the noted Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon often cited as the world’s most gifted pediatric neurosurgeon, shared the stage with President Obama today at the National Prayer Breakfast, making remarks and suggestions that appeared to be alternatives to the president’s national health reform law and solutions to encourage economic growth.

USCCB: He listed three key areas of concern: the narrow understanding of a religious ministry; compelling church ministries to fund and facilitate services such as contraceptives, including abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization that violate Catholic teaching; and disregard of the conscience rights of for-profit business owners. These are the same concerns articulated by the USCCB Administrative Committee in its March 2012 statement, United for Religious Freedom.

San Francisco Chronicle (AP): Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe said Thursday he’ll sign into law legislation prohibiting insurers from covering most abortions in an exchange created under the federal health care law, as lawmakers advanced a separate measure banning the procedure 12 weeks into a pregnancy.

Matt Bowman at Alliance Defending Freedom Blog: The Obama administration is engaging in snake-oil moral theology, and then imposing its moral views on any religious entity that disagrees. No one should be forced by the government to facilitate early abortions and anti-fertility activities, under any rationale.

NC Register: “Freedom is not the government’s to give and take away when it pleases,” said Alliance Defending Freedom counsel Matt Bowman in response to one of the decisions. “The court did the right thing in issuing its order, and we are confident that this unconstitutional mandate’s days are numbered,” he continued. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing numerous plaintiffs in lawsuits challenging the controversial contraception mandate, which requires employers to offer health insurance covering contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can cause early abortions. More than 130 individuals and organizations have sued over the mandate, arguing that it violates their right to religious freedom.

Matthew J. Franck at Public Discourse: In the latest proposed version of the HHS mandate, the government presumes to say which employers get religious freedom and how much they get, but all religious employers are obligated to live out their beliefs and should have the freedom to do so.

Deacon Keith Fournier at Catholic Online: Another outstanding group doing public interest work is the Alliance Defending Freedom. They offered a quick analysis, the thrust of which is found in the title of their article, Only a Sliver of Religious Organizations Covered by Proposed Exemption to HHS Abortion Pill Mandate. They are correc

Fox News: Supermarket owners argue a pending federal food-labeling rule that stems from the new health care law would overburden thousands of grocers and convenience store owners — to the tune of $1 billion in the first year alone.

LifeSiteNews: In a Jan. 23 column for the diocesan newspaper, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said those who voted for Obama “bear the responsibility for a step deeper in the culture of death.” Though he would have hoped American’s first African-American president “would have stood on the side of freedom for all,” Obama has been “a proponent of an expediency that is shameful and criminal in the eyes of Almighty God,” the bishop wrote in The Tablet.

Matt Bowman on the Don Kroah Show, WAVA Radio to discuss: Obama Admin.’s Narrow Gesture On Abortion Pill Mandate Falls Short. | MP3 audio 11:20 mins

Christian Post: “Americans should be free to honor God and live according to their consciences no matter where they are. A person’s faith convictions don’t disappear the moment he or she steps outside of a church building,” said ADF Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton, a former U.S. attorney. “This lawsuit puts a glaring light on the fact that the Obama administration just doesn’t understand what religious freedom really is. All Americans have a God-given freedom to live and do business according to their faith, and the First Amendment has always protected that.”

Alan Sears at Alliance Defending Freedom Blog: Two crucial decisions last week by federal courts solidified the legal case Alliance Defending Freedom is making on behalf of a broad cross-section of Christians opposed to the ObamaCare abortion pill mandate.
These are important early-round decisions in an epic legal battle that has enormous implications for you, your family, and for every Christian employer in the country.

Florida Baptist Witness: Alliance Defending Freedom senior legal counsel Matt Bowman said the proposal still infringes on religious liberty. “Religious non-profits will, in fact, be forced to provide an insurance plan with a provider that gives the religious group’s employees abortion-pill coverage in direct connection with that plan, the coverage is definitely not free, and the coverage is imposed ‘automatically’ even against the objection of many employees who don’t want free abortion-pill coverage for themselves or their daughters,” Bowman said.

Religion Clause Blog: The complaint (full text) in Briscoe v. Sebelius, (D CO, filed 2/4/2013), alleges that plaintiff Stephen Briscoe, owner of affiliated corporations and LLCs that operate senior independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities, believes that furnishing coverage for contraceptives that may prevent implantation of an already fertilized egg is a sin for which he will be held accountable . . . Alliance Defending Freedom announced the filing of the lawsuit.

Alan Sears at the Washington Examiner: Alliance Defending Freedom and our associated attorneys represent religious colleges, family business leaders and faith-based companies. Overall, there are more than 110 plaintiffs against this mandate around the country. The only solution is for the administration to obey the Constitution and its legal duty to protect religious freedom for everyone, not just for those it chooses.

B.C. Catholic: The Alliance Defending Freedom – which is handling several religious freedom lawsuits challenging the regulation – explained that the “new exemption is simpler than before but continues to cover only a sliver of religious organizations.”

LifeNews: . “As a result, the latest White House “compromise” already has a wave of critics, including respected national religious liberty law firms like the Becket Fund and the Alliance Defending Freedom. And many are far harsher than Professor Bradley in their analysis.”

NCPA Policy Digest: Now that the dust has settled and the true costs of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have been revealed, union leaders are realizing the overhaul may not be such a good deal, says the Wall Street Journal.