Posted on 09/17/2015 4:32:24 PM PDT by markomalley
A federal court ruled Thursday that religious organizations can't be handed massive fines for refusing to comply with Obamacare's birth control mandate.
The ruling form the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday heightens the chances of the case making it to the Supreme Court.
"Fifteen federal judges now agree that the government has no right to dictate or second guess a person's sincere religious beliefs," said Lori Windham, senior counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The fund has financed the legal defense for CNS International Ministries and Heartland Christian College, which brought the lawsuit over the birth control mandate.
The dispute centers over whether religious organizations can avoid the mandate to provide birth control in their insurance plans.
Obamacare requires insurance plans to pay for preventive health services such as birth control. A religious organization can get an accommodation that allows for employees to still get birth control coverage, but these organizations don't have to pay for it. Instead, the government picks up the tab.
But various religious organizations such as universities and nonprofits complain that employees still get coverage for birth control under that option.
They instead want to have an exemption, which does not extend birth control coverage to plan beneficiaries. The exemption is traditionally only given to religious employers such as churches or associations of churches, according to the appeals court's opinion.
The appeals court ruled that the government's fines for CNS and the college, which only got an accommodation, do impose a burden on their religious beliefs.
"When the government imposes a direct monetary penalty to coerce conduct that violates religious belief, '[T]here has never been a question that the government 'imposes a substantial burden on the exercise of religion,'" the opinion said.
It appears the issue is headed to the Supreme Court, as appeals courts have weighed in on similar lawsuits around the country.
+1
It matters not that this group won. The Obamites will find another avenue to try to force us. It is their nature. Their hatred burns fiercely for the people of Christ.
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