Once again, the Affordable Care Act is headed back to the Supreme Court. Because Jesus.
Apparently it is just too difficult for these religious organizations to actually sign an exemption waiver for birth control coverage, so back to court we go.
Via SCOTUSblog:
On Friday, for the fourth time in three years, the Supreme Court agreed to rule on challenges to the new federal health care law — this time, religious non-profit institutions’ objection to the Affordable Care Act’s birth-control mandate, which requires employers to provide their female employees with health insurance that includes no-cost access to certain forms of birth control. The Court accepted parts of all seven cases on that issue filed with it under the ACA. It has not yet spelled out how those will be consolidated for a hearing — planned for late March.
In all seven cases, the Court will rule on whether the mandate itself and the government’s attempt to arrange a way to exempt non-profit charities, schools, colleges, and hospitals from the mandate violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It specifically refused, in two of the cases, to hear claims that the government has discriminated among those allowed an exemption and those not — claims made either under RFRA or under the Constitution’s First Amendment.
The case among the seven that had gained the highest profile because of the identity of the challenger — an order of nuns named the Little Sisters of the Poor — was included in review of the basic RFRA issue, but it also gained review of a second issue: whether the order has to obey the mandate even though its health insurer would not take part because it has an exempt “church plan.” This was the case that sought review on a constitutional claim of discrimination, which was not granted.
For the nuts who keep pushing these cases, it's all about control, not Jesus. Will women have the ability to make their own choices, or will the church choose for them?
