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While the Little Sisters of the Poor are fighting for our religious freedom, the University of Notre Dame (which gave to the most infamously pro-abortion President of these USA ever the honor of a Doctrate in Law – of all things), has submited to their honoree’s HHS Mandate.In the South Bend Tribune we read: SOUTH BEND — The University of Notre Dame’s [Shame's] insurance plan on Wednesday started providing contraceptive coverage for employees, as required by federal law.But university leaders are continuing with a lawsuit they hope will result in an end to that benefit. [Meanwhile, they obey. Why wouldn't...

On Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an order preventing the government from enforcing the Obamacare contraceptive mandate on the Little Sisters of the Poor. Sotomayor’s decision to delay the contraceptive portion of the law was joined by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which also issued an emergency stay for Catholic-affiliated groups challenging the contraceptive provision, including the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and Catholic University.Separately, Lawyer Noel J. Francisco had said in appeals to Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan that the mandate would “expose numerous Catholic organizations to draconian fines...

Full disclosure: I'm posting this fearmongering 'news' as a result of histrionics ('cause another Freeper said so). </sarc> See below: Potassum Iodide Solicitation Number: 14-284-SOL-0015A Agency: Department of Health and Human ServicesOffice: Program Support CenterLocation: Supply Service Center Opportunity History Original Synopsis Dec 06, 2013 3:35 pm Solicitation Number: 14-284-SOL-0015A Notice Type: Combined Synopsis/Solicitation Synopsis: Added: Dec 06, 2013 3:35 pm (i)  This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for a commercial item prepared in accordance with FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information in this notice.  This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation...

Supreme Court Halts Contraception Mandate For Religious Groups By M. Alex Johnson and Winston Wilde, NBC News Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted a last-ditch plea from Catholic groups Tuesday night to block a birth control mandate in the new health care law for religious organizations, just hours before it was to have gone into effect. The archdioceses of Washington, D.C., and Nashville, Tenn., the Catholic Conference of Michigan and several affiliated groups requested the emergency stay of provisions of the Affordable Care Act that would require companies — regardless of religious beliefs — to provide contraceptives and other abortion-inducing...

It’s not much of an injunction, but it’s enough to put a stop to its enforcement for a couple of days, at least. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a Barack Obama appointee to the high court, issued the order just hours before the mandate would have gone into effect (via Frank Weathers at Patheos): Only hours before the law was to take effect, a Supreme Court justice on Tuesday blocked implementation of part of President Barack Obama’s health care law that would have forced some religion-affiliated organizations to provide health insurance for employees that includes birth control coverage.Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s...

Bringing in the New Year, and not just at Times Square. This just in from the Associated Press, WASHINGTON (AP) — Only hours before the law was to take effect, a Supreme Court justice on Tuesday blocked implementation of part of President Barack Obama’s health care law that would have forced some religion-affiliated organizations to provide health insurance for employees that includes birth control.Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s decision came after a different effort by Catholic-affiliated groups from around the nation. Those groups had rushed to the federal courts to stop Wednesday’s start of portions of the Affordable Care Act, also known...

The Obama administration has lost yet another court case against the controversial HHS mandate that forces companies, colleges, and religious groups to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions under their employee health plans. Today a Houston federal court delivered a major blow to the controversial HHS mandate ruling in favor of East Texas Baptist University and Houston Baptist University. In a 46-page opinion, the court ruled that the federal mandate requiring employers to provide employees with abortion-causing drugs and devices violates federal civil rights laws, and issued an injunction against the mandate. Religious plaintiffs have now...

OAKLAND, Calif. — A Northern California family who lost their bid to keep their 13-year-old daughter on life support says "there is still time for a miracle." Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo has ruled that Jahi McMath, who was declared brain dead after suffering complications following a tonsillectomy, can be removed from the ventilator keeping her body functioning.

In the normal course of events, when a government agency or other business is issued a Congressional subpoena, the expectation is that they will comply and gather the requested documents and either take them, or have them delivered to Congress in the requested time frame. You may have heard that the House Oversight and Government Reform committee has issued a number of document requestsubpoenas from the HHS as well as several private companies that were working on the HealthCare.gov site as government contractors. In a previous post we discussed how in one instance the HHS actually had one of these companies...

Court sides with Catholic schools, hospitals against HHS mandate  CWN - December 17, 2013 Invoking the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, a federal district court judge has barred enforcement of the HHS mandate against two New York-area Catholic high schools and two Catholic health care systems. The Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Rockville Centre, which are currently exempt from the mandate, also joined the lawsuit. The “plaintiffs have demonstrated that the Mandate … compels them to perform acts that are contrary to their religion,” ruled Judge Brian Cogan, whom President George W. Bush appointed to...

On December 11th, HHS head Kathleen Sebelius told Darrell Issa’s House Government Oversight Committee that 365,000 had enrolled in ObamaCare. Later on during the hearing, this conversation took place between Sebelius and Representative Michael Burgess (R) of Texas concerning the definition of “enrolled”: Burgess: What if that patient doesn’t make the premium payment? You said they’re covered Dec. 23, but they never write the check. They never make the payment. Sebelius: Then they’re not covered. They are not enrolled, and at every point along the way, on the website they are told until they make the payment— (1) Sebelius repeated...

Earlier this week, famed Christian radio host and psychologist Dr. James Dobson filed a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s HHS mandate, which requires employers to provide insurance coverage that pays for contraception, steriliazations, and abortifacient drug. The lawsuit was also filed on behalf of Dobson’s “Family Talk” radio show and ministry, a Christian non-profit organization that is currently subject to the mandate. Dr. James Dobson Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, and Family Talk say they object specifically to providing coverage for abortion drugs and devices. “Our ministry believes in living out the religious convictions we hold to...

The Health and Human Services Department told House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa that it won’t turn over documents related to the security of the Healthcare.gov website because it can’t trust him to keep secret information that could give hackers a roadmap to wreak havoc on the system. Issa has issued a subpoena to MITRE, a government contractor, to turn over unredacted copies of security-testing documents by noon Friday. At issue are website development plans MITRE drafted for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is under HHS. Already, Issa has been given access to the...

Just 364,682 Americans picked a health insurance plan through President Obama’s health care program between the Oct. 1 launch of the insurance exchanges and Nov. 30, the Department of Health and Human Services announced today. Though the pace of signups accelerated during November, as only 106,185 Americans had picked plans as of Nov. 2, the combined signups were still less than half the administration's target of 800,000 enrollments by the end of November. Adding a caveat, HHS noted that it is trying to correct a problem that may have resulted in some of the signups being counted twice, thus potentially...

Time probably did not intend its article as satire. According to Swampland.time.com, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a blog post early Wednesday that she is asking the department’s inspector general to investigate the contracting process, management and performance and payment issues that may have contributed to the flawed launch.[Emphasis added.]The announcement comes as Sebelius heads to Capitol Hill for another round of grilling before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. A thorough investigation is needed and that takes lots of time. To that end, the Impartial Departmental Inspector General (I*DIG) should seek advice from all relevant Inspectors General on...

No, really. Young Erin McDonald won $2,000 for her Obamacare-promoting YouTube video based on Jessie J’s hit, “Price Tag.” The vocals and rewrite of the lyrics aren’t bad, but I give you the chorus. Sung seemingly without irony: Ain’t about the, uh, cha-ching cha-ching Ain’t about the, yeah, bling bla-bling Affordable Care Act — Don’t worry about the price tag. Emily Zanotti, who has the rest of the winners, in two other categories. Neither are as delightfully clueless as this offering, but there are white people rapping: I suspect she doesn’t pay taxes, or she might have a problem with...

Pro-life demonstrators in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Lansing, Mich., Dec 3, 2013 / 05:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A lawsuit charging that the U.S. bishops’ ethical standards for hospitals caused negligent care of a pregnant woman wrongly claims that abortion was medically necessary, a doctor and professor of medicine has said. “Abortion is never necessary to save the life of the mother,” said Dr. Brian C. Calhoun, a professor and vice-chair in the obstetrics and gynecology department at West Virginia University-Charleston. Calhoun, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, rejected the deliberate killing of an unborn patient in a medical emergency....

The company that earned the no-bid contract to build the failed Obamacare website also runs the Army’s disastrous Human Terrain System in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has been accused of fraud, sexual harassment and racism. The much-maligned Human Terrain System (HTS), launched in 2007, sends academics from social science fields like anthropology and linguistics into war zones to help soldiers understand the local population. The Army spent $58 million on the program in 2013, down from $114 million in 2011. CGI Federal, the U.S. arm of the Canadian CGI Group and the designer of the failed Obamacare website, attempted a...

After two months of massive glitches and bugs on the healthcare.gov website, the Obama administration says they met their self-imposed deadline of getting the site running smoothly. The administration said Sunday the site is now working for just about everyone but warned it still needs more fixes. Valley Health's health insurance enrollment campaign in Barboursville, WV proved that while the site has improved many problems, there are still kinks that need to be fixed. During Thanksgiving weekend, Valley Health helped those in need of health insurance sign up at the Huntington Mall in Barboursville, WV. In three days, certified assisters...

Rights: The Supreme Court will hear a challenge by a Christian-owned store chain against the HHS birth-control mandate that requires businesses to provide contraception coverage, a violation of religious conscience. Some 16 months after the Supreme Court upheld ObamaCare as a constitutional form of taxation, some 40 for-profit companies are about to find out its constitutionality on another front — whether they must cover some or all forms of birth control if doing so would violate their religious beliefs. The nation's highest court has agreed to hear the federal government's appeal of a June decision by the U.S. 10th Circuit...