Justice Sonia Sotomayor delays birth control mandate in Obamacare
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted a temporary injunction to a group of Catholic nonprofit groups, including the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged, from the required coverage of contraceptives.
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Sotomayor said the government is temporarily prevented from enforcing the coverage requirements and must respond by 10 a.m. Friday.
The White House responded Wednesday, saying the group isn’t subject to the requirement because it doesn’t apply to self-funded church plans. The White House said the Justice Department has already made clear the mandate doesn’t apply to such organizations and that it defers to the agency on litigation matters.
“But [we] remain confident that our final rules strike the balance of providing women with free contraceptive coverage while preventing non-profit religious employers with religious objections to contraceptive coverage from having to contract, arrange, pay, or refer for such coverage,” the White House said.
But Sotomayor’s decision to delay the contraceptive portion of the law was joined by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which also issued an emergency stay for Catholic-affiliated groups challenging the contraceptive provision, including the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and Catholic University.
Separately, Lawyer Noel J. Francisco had said in appeals to Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan that the mandate would “expose numerous Catholic organizations to draconian fines unless they abandon their religious convictions and take actions that facilitate access to abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives and sterilization for their employees and students.”
The law requires employers to provide insurance that covers a range of preventive care, free of charge, including contraception. The Catholic Church prohibits the use of contraceptives.
