Posted on 12/17/2013 6:33:05 PM PST by marshmallow
New York City, N.Y., Dec 17, 2013 / 06:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A federal judge in New York has issued the first permanent injunction against the federal contraception mandate, a ruling that religious freedom advocates are praising as a major victory.
“There is no way that a court can, or should, determine that a coerced violation of conscience is of insufficient quantum to merit constitutional protection,” wrote Judge Brian Cogan of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn in a Dec. 16 ruling.
He explained that the controversial mandate “burdens plaintiffs’ religion by coercing them into authorizing third parties to provide this coverage through the self-certification requirement, an act forbidden by plaintiffs’ religion.”
Judge Cogan issued the ruling in a case brought by the Catholic archdioceses of New York and Rockville Centre, as well as associated Catholic institutions within the archdioceses. The lawsuit challenged the federal contraception mandate, arguing that it amounts to an unconstitutional violation of religious freedom.
The mandate, issued as a directive under the Affordable Care Act, requires employers to offer health insurance plans covering contraceptives, sterilization, and some products that may cause early abortions.
In his ruling, Cogan dismissed the complaints of the archdioceses themselves, because they are already exempt from the mandate in its finalized form, which was released by the Obama administration after an extensive revision process.
However, he granted permanent injunctive relief to the remaining plaintiffs that were not already exempt: Cardinal Spellman High School, Monsignor Farrell High School, Catholic Health Care System – or ArchCare – and Catholic Health Services of Long Island. The injunction protects the organizations from the demands of the mandate and from the penalties for failing to comply with it.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
I’m sorry, but there are so many thing that this Administration has done that is against the Constitution that it should be a field day for Judges.
SCOTUS will overturn this decision.
Not if the decision is based in law, and despite the failed Roberts ruling, a decision favoring free religious exercise would be much more difficult to avoid.
Catholic ping!
But not impossible. An appeals court can overturn this, then SCOTUS can simply refuse to consider the case.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3102801/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3102940/posts
Except SCOTUS has already agreed to hear the hobby lobby and related cases, all of which turn on roughly the same body of precedents, a difficult area for the government to win on. So this case will either be consolidated into that group, or it will be more or less directly controlled by the outcome for that group. Again, if law and not intimidation controls the outcome, its a no brainer win for free exercise. Could even be 7 to 2.
Even then, though, the USSC will make their ruling so narrow as to void only the contraception mandate, and not the rest of the law.
Now is the time to hit Obamacare in court due to its lack of a severability clause.
If part of it is struck down, the whole rotten mess has to go.
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