Justices this time will review whether the birth control mandate violates religious freedom laws and whether proposed exemptions pushed by the Trump administration that have so far been blocked by lower courts can stand. The administration wants to expand the number of workplaces who can opt out of the requirement. The Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Catholic nuns that’s been involved in legal battles over the Obamacare regulations, have asked the Supreme Court to lift a nationwide injunction against the Trump policies that was imposed by the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Obama administration had initially offered a workaround for religious groups in which the government would still guarantee birth control for people with employee insurance. Hobby Lobby stores successfully pressed a case in which justices in 2014 ruled that closely held companies with religious objections didn’t have to comply.
Justices in 2016 sent back to lower courts another challenge to the Obama administration’s rules from religious nonprofit charities and hospitals.
The mandate has gained renewed attention under President Donald Trump, who in in 2017 ordered the federal health department to widen the pool of employers who don’t have to comply with the birth control mandate. That policy change prompted new challenges by mostly Democratic-led states, leading to a nationwide injunction from the 3rd Circuit. The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit also upheld a decision to block the rule, although those judges limited their decision to a handful of plaintiff states.
Source: politico.com
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