DOJ fights Notre Dame on Obamacare contraception mandate

The Obama administration is fighting the University of Notre Dame’s request for a reprieve from complying with Obamacare’s contraception coverage requirements.

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Justice Department lawyers filed a legal brief with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals opposing the Catholic university’s latest bid to be exempted from the law’s mandate on contraception coverage, detailed in a Feb. 7 Life News article.

Note Dame’s case is but one of dozens of cases filed against the HHS mandate. The school re-filed its petition after the Supreme Court granted an injunction to the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged last month.

The school said its case is nearly identical to the Little Sisters; the Justice Department claims that the facts are not the same.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., a landmark case addressing the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of business owners to operate their family companies without violating their deeply held religious convictions.

Notre Dame “Employees and other beneficiaries are currently receiving contraceptive coverage,” Justice Department officials wrote in their brief (posted here).The school “offers no reason why this Court should disrupt the status quo by entering an injunction pending appeal while it is considering the merits of the appeal on a highly expedited basis.”

Notre Dame told students last month that it was following the contraception coverage requirement. The school notified its third party administrator, Meritain Health, that it wasn’t going to cover contraception so Meritain enacted the program.