Free Republic

Archbishop William E. Lori welcomed a Jan. 24 Supreme Court order that affirms an injunction blocking enforcement of a mandate requiring the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide contraceptive coverage in health insurance for their employees. The order affirmed Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s Dec. 31 order in the case. It temporarily blocks the federal government from requiring the sisters and their co-plaintiffs at Christian Brothers Services from having to meet that requirement of the Affordable Care Act. “This is certainly a preliminary victory, but I’d also say a significant victory,” said Archbishop Lori, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc...

The phone rang at the Catonsville headquarters of the Little Sisters of the Poor just moments after a Dec. 31 televised news program reported on Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s order to temporarily prevent the Little Sisters of the Poor from being required to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate. A 12-year-old girl from Colorado had been watching the breaking news with her parents and wanted to call the Little Sisters to support their lawsuit against the federal government. The sisters object to having to provide contraceptives, sterilizations and abortifacient drugs within their employee health insurance coverage under...

As the Congressional Budget Office explained: "A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States." Yet, all of the House and Senate health-care bills being debated require Americans to either obtain or purchase expensive health insurance, estimated to cost up to $15,000 per year for a typical family, or pay substantial tax penalties for not doing so. The purpose of this compulsory contract, coupled with the arbitrary price ratios and...