Category: Lawsuits

Appeal of Missouri court ruling on HHS birth control mandate

U.S. District Judge Carole Jackson of St. Louis has dismissed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate brought by Frank O’Brien and his company, O’Brien Industrial Holdings LLC of St. Louis.  The suit challenged the federal government regulation that requires O’Brien to provide employees with insurance for contraceptives, embryocides and surgical sterilization.  A Catholic, O’Brien objects to facilitating any of the services for religious reasons.  The judge ruled that the indirect support did not substantially burden the free exercise of O’Brien’s religious beliefs.  Lawyer Frank Manion of the American Center for Law and Justice has filed an appeal on behalf of O’Brien.  [ACLJ comment][St. Louis-Post Dispatch][Religion Dispatches]

 

Illinois court rules in favour of pharmacist freedom of conscience

Two pharmacists have won an appeal against a 2005 executive order issued by the Governor of Illinois that required all pharmacies to fill prescriptions for the morning after pill.  The appeals court upheld a lower court injunction based on the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act.

An Illinois appeals court has ruled in favor of two pharmacists who objected to having to provide emergency contraception on religious grounds, setting a precedent their lawyer hopes will protect others from judicial or state sanctions. [San Francisco Chronicle]

30 lawsuits now pending against U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has listed 30 lawsuits pending against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regulation that would compel employers to provide insurance for contraception, embryocides and sterilization, despite moral or religious objections.

Two more lawsuits against U.S. federal government filed by Evangelical colleges

The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed suit on behalf of Grace College and Seminary of Winona Lake, Indiana, and Biola University of Mirada, California.  Both are Evangelical Christian colleges that object to the Health and Human Services regulation that requires them to provide health insurance coverage for students and employees for contraception, embryocides and sterilization. [ADF news release]

Christian opposition to abortion pill mandate grows, two more colleges sue

Alliance Defending Freedom represents Grace College and Seminary, Biola University

NEWS RELEASE

Alliance Defending  Freedom

Attorney sound bite: Gregory S. Baylor

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against the Obama administration Thursday on behalf of two evangelical Christian colleges: Grace College and Seminary in Indiana and Biola University in California. The lawsuit is the latest to challenge the administration’s unconstitutional mandate that faith-based employers provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs at no cost to employees regardless of religious or moral objections.

“Christian colleges should remain free to operate according to their deeply-held beliefs. Punishing religious people and organizations for freely exercising their faith is an assault on our most fundamental American freedoms,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor. “This mandate leaves religious employers with no real choice: you must either comply and abandon your religious freedom and conscience, or resist and be taxed for your faith. Every American should know that a government with the power to do this to anyone can do this–and worse–to everyone.”

“The Obama administration’s mandate forces us to act against our own doctrinal statement, which upholds the sanctity of human life,” said Biola University President Barry H. Corey. “It unjustly intrudes on our religious liberty as protected under the U.S. Constitution and makes a mockery of our attempts to live our lives according to our faith convictions, time-honored and long protected.”

“Government officials do not have the right to require religious organizations to act in a way contrary to deeply-held religious beliefs, nor do they have the right to define what constitutes the free exercise of religion,” added Grace College and Seminary President Ronald E. Manahan. “To determine that Grace College and Seminary is not ‘religious enough’ to qualify for an exemption from this mandate is an affront to the religious freedom and free conscience of dedicated Christian organizations across America.”

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys have already filed three other lawsuits against the mandate: one on behalf of Geneva College and The Seneca Hardwood Lumber Company in Pennsylvania, one on behalf of Louisiana College in Louisiana, and one on behalf of Hercules Industries in Colorado, in which a federal judge issued an order preventing the mandate from being enforced against the family-run business. The lawsuits represent a large cross-section of Protestants and Catholics who object to the mandate.

The new lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Grace Schools v. Sebelius, argues that the mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as well as the First and Fifth amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Attorney Jane Dall Wilson of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP in Indianapolis is local counsel in the case. Biola University Legal Counsel Jerry Mackey is also participating in the case.

Grace College and Seminary is a private, Christian institution in Winona Lake, Ind., offering baccalaureate, master, and doctor degrees and drawing students from more than 20 countries. Biola University is a private, Christian university in La Mirada, Calif., with six schools that offer 145 academic programs, ranging from the B.A. to Ph.D, and is the first university in California to file suit against the mandate.

Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund) is an alliance-building legal ministry that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.