Free Republic

In a major win for religious liberty, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on Wednesday that employers with moral or religious objections would be exempt from the federal mandate that requires company health insurance to cover birth control. The case was a consolidation of The Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania and Trump v. Pennsylvania, both of which sought to alter the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). While the bill itself had no requirements for contraceptive access being guaranteed, this became mandatory through interim final rules (IFRs). While Churches have always been exempt...

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this week in a group of cases challenging the Obamacare requirement that non-profit employers offer their employees health care coverage that includes Plan B, ella, and other potentially life-ending drugs and devices, contraception, and sterilization.The challengers in the consolidated cases, captioned Zubik v. Burwell, include the Little Sisters of the Poor, Priests for Life, East Texas Baptist University, Southern Nazarene University, Geneva College, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and other religious charities.The Government’s MandateNotably, the government is imposing its mandate on groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor, who care for the...

Sunday night, the New England Patriots blew their perfect record in a snow-covered thriller at the Mile-High City. Revelry promptly ensued, and not just in Denver, given the Patriot's status as most-hated team in the league. The Patriot's cellar-dwelling reputation is due, in part, to its perceived cellar-dwelling ethics. Hence the enduring impact of the Patriot's recent Deflate-gate scandal: it just feels wrong to fans that last year's may have made it to the Super Bowl not by simply being the best, but by breaking the rules. Something similar has been playing out in federal courts, where the feds were recently caught red-handed....

Boy, our political debate is getting crasser by the moment. And so it is that the National Organization for Women has put the Little Sisters of the Poor, an international congregation of Roman Catholic nuns who have devoted their lives to caring for the elderly poor, on its "Dirty 100" list. NOW is upset that the Little Sisters sued the federal government, arguing that new ObamaCare mandates are inhibiting their constitutional right to freely practice their faith - that their vow to advance the dignity of life for every person, no matter how weak or unwanted, means they can never...