The Administration is taking a mulligan, make that its fourth mulligan in this abortion-drug mandate debacle. Today, the Department of Health and Human Services released additional details regarding its so-called “compromise” on the abortion-drug mandate.

In the fourth Friday of such announcements, the Administration stated they would solicit public comment for several options to create a new “insurance mandate,” and provide a potential safe harbor rule for certain student health plans.

“We do not need any more rule making.  We do not need any more comment periods.  We already settled this with that one original rule: The First Amendment” said Hannah Smith, Senior Counsel at Becket.

In fact, many religious groups will not qualify for the safe harbor even for their employee health plans so their student health plans will similarly begin to dispense the offending drugs and services beginning this August. The impending harm on religious groups continues.

“The Administration’s action is just another delay tactic,” said Smith. “It’s not that complicated. Grant a wide enough exemption to honor the conscience of millions of Americans. The First Amendment demands it.”

The timing of this announcement is also suspect. The Administration knew that Becket’s response to the government’s motion to dismiss will be filed in federal court on Monday. This delay tactic is designed to disrupt those arguments because the administration knows it won’t be able to answer them.

Becket Law is the first and leading law firm to legally challenge the Obama Administration’s mandate. Becket currently represents Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic liberal arts college founded by Benedictine monks, and Colorado Christian University, an evangelical college located outside of Denver, Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), a Catholic news organization founded 30 years ago by a cloistered nun named Mother Angelica, and Ave Maria University, a school dedicated to living the teachings of the Catholic church.

Becket Law is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. The Becket Fund has a 17-year history of defending religious liberty for people of all faiths. Its attorneys are recognized as experts in the field of church-state law, and they recently won a 9-0 victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, which The Wall Street Journal called one of “the most important religious liberty cases in a half century.”

For more information, or to arrange an interview with one of the attorneys, please contact Melinda Skea at media@becketlaw.org or call 202.349.7224.

Last night, the Obama administration attempted to fend off the second in a series of lawsuits challenging its mandate that religious institutions provide health services contrary to their faith.  The administration’s filing again urges the court to duck the key issues merely because it has said the mandate might be changed at some unspecified date in the future.

“The administration is taking the remarkable position that announcing future plans at a press conference means the courts should ignore the law on the books,” said Hannah Smith, Senior Counsel at Becket Law.

The lawsuit filed by Becket on behalf of Colorado Christian University was the first from a non-denominational Christian university, showing how widespread concern is over the violations of religious liberty in the President’s health care reform.

“The American people can’t afford to wait as their constitutionally protected freedom of religion is being eroded,” said Smith.  “We are continuing our pursuit of all four lawsuits to protect Americans of faith from this federal dictate that violates their conscience.”

Becket Law is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. Becket has a 17-year history of defending religious liberty for people of all faiths. Its attorneys are recognized as experts in the field of church-state law, and they recently won a 9-0 victory against the federal government at the U.S. Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC.

For more information, or to arrange an interview with one of the attorneys, please contact Melinda Skea at media@becketlaw.org or call 202.349.7224.

Executive Overreach: The HHS Mandate versus Religious Liberty

Full House Judiciary Committee Hearing

February 28, 2012, 2:30pm
2141 Rayburn House Office Building

View video here.

Access written testimonies here.

The US House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, will hold a full committee hearing, February 28, 2012, at 2:30pm to discuss: Executive Overreach: The HHS Mandate Versus Religious Liberty. Becket attorney, Asma Uddin, will testify.

Full Witness List:

Asma Uddin
 Attorney
Becket Law

Asma Uddin: Oral Testimony (To be checked against delivery)
Asma Uddin: Written Testimony

Bishop William Lori
Chair
Committee for Religious Liberty
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Jeanne Monahan
Director
Center for Human Dignity
Family Research Council

Dr. Linda Rosenstock
Dean
UCLA School of Public Health

Becket attorneys will be available for comment immediately after the hearing. To arrange an interview please contact Melinda Skea at 202.349.7224 or media@becketlaw.org.

Becket Law is the first and leading law firm to legally challenge the Obama Administration’s mandate. The Becket Fund currently represent Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic liberal arts college founded by Benedictine monks, Colorado Christian University, an evangelical college located outside of Denver, Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), a Catholic news organizations founded 30 years ago by a cloistered nun named Mother Angelica, and Ave Maria University, a school dedicated to living the teachings of the Catholic church. Read more about the Becket Fund’s legal challenges here.

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Becket Law is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. Becket has a 17-year history of defending religious liberty for people of all faiths. Its attorneys are recognized as experts in the field of church-state law, and they recently won a 9-0 victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, which The Wall Street Journal called one of “the most important religious liberty cases in a half century.”

Today, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Archbishop of New York, His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, joined more than 500 leading scholars, university presidents and other academic administrators, activists, and religious leaders from a multitude of faiths, in a statement rejecting the governmental Health and Human Services mandate requiring employers to provide, directly or indirectly, insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives, and also rejecting President Obama’s so-called “accommodation” of religious liberty as a mere “accounting trick” that changes nothing of moral substance.

The statement is entitled “Unacceptable” and is available here. Its original drafters are Professor Mary Ann Glendon, of the Harvard Law School; Professor Robert P. George of Princeton; Yuval Levin, Hertog Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center; Professor O. Carter Snead of Notre Dame; and, President of Catholic University, John Garvey.

Among the signers are Emory University’s Ann Hartle, Fordham’s Jacqueline Nolan-Haley, Rabbi David Novak of the University of Toronto; the eminent Muslim scholar and public intellectual Shaykh Hamza Yusuf; University of Chicago Professor Jean Bethke Elshtain; the great religious liberty scholar and appellate litigator Michael McConnell of Stanford Law School; Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, Vice President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; the distinguished political theorist Thomas Pangle of the University of Texas; Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of Yeshiva University; Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia; Evangelical leader and Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson; Archbishop Peter Akinola, former Anglican Primate of Nigeria; Dr. Paige Patterson, former President of the Southern Baptist Convention; Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III of the Church of God in Christ; Stockholm Prize laureate Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe of Princeton University;  Russell Moore, Dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary ; Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, Superior General of the Sisters of Life; Lorraine Pangle, Professor of Government, UT Austin; Ann W. Astell, University of Notre Dame; Lynn Wardle , BYU; Helen Alvaré, George Mason University; Maria S. Aguirre, Catholic University; Lorraine Gin, University of Arizona; Jeanne Heffernan Schindler, Villanova University; Mary Sommers, University of St. Thomas in Texas; Paz Zorita, Arizona State; Tiffany Donaldson, University of Massachusetts; Mary Daly at Notre Dame; Kimberly Shankman at Benedictine College, among many others.

Not only is this an alliance of Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Latter-Day Saints, Jews, Muslims, and others; the list of signers includes people from across the political spectrum–liberals, conservatives, and people fitting into neither category. This is an unprecedented coming together of people to defend religious liberty and the rights of conscience against a deeply misguided and unjust governmental action.

Related developments: Asma Uddin of Becket Law will be testifying on this matter before the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow, Tuesday, February 28. Professor Carter Snead will be speaking at a Federalist Society event on this matter on Thursday, March 1.

For more information or to arrange an interview with one of the drafters of the letter, please contact Melinda Skea at media@becketlaw.org or call 202.349.7224.

It is a sad day when an American citizen or organization has no choice but to sue its own government in order to exercise religious liberty rights guaranteed by our nation’s Constitution.

Today Ave Maria University is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from the United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, because the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is requiring the University to offer health plan services inconsistent with our firmly-held religious convictions.  As an American Catholic, I am in disbelief that I have to choose between being a good Catholic and a good citizen.  I will not, and the University will not, accept this false choice.  The federal government has no right to coerce the University into funding contraceptive services that include abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization, in the health plan we offer our employees.

Some will argue that this dilemma was resolved by a so-called “accommodation” by the Obama administration on February 10^th, one that attempted to shift the provision of these services from the employer to the insurer.  This sleight of hand maneuver by the government fooled no one.  Ave Maria University pays 95 percent of the cost of the health plan we offer our employees.  It is absurd for the federal government to suggest that these new pharmaceuticals will be free because they aren’t free now.  In fact the administration’s own argument for free contraceptive drugs is that they currently place a financial burden on women.

Under the federal mandate Ave Maria University would be paying for these drugs if we complied with the law.  So we will not.  We are prepared to discontinue our health plan and pay the $2,000 per employee, per year fine rather than comply with an unjust, immoral mandate in violation of our rights of conscience.

Let me be clear:  a woman’s right to contraception is not an issue in this case, nor is it at Ave Maria.  Employees at Ave Maria and elsewhere are free to decide on their own whether to use birth control.  Never before has the federal government bullied groups like ours into doctrinal conformance on an issue with such religious and moral gravity.

America has respected the right of individuals to have faith or no faith, and the right of faith-based groups to be in the public square without having to sell their souls.  My experience working in the White House in the faith-based office as its director taught me the beauty of the interplay between the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment.

It is apparent that this administration does not want to strike a balance between its zeal to implement a new social policy and the rights of religiously-affiliated organizations like Ave Maria.  The Chicago Tribune’s editorial in response to President Obama’s February 10^th statement, entitled “The bishops aren’t alone,” said, “Americans want government policy to protect religious liberty – the first freedom guaranteed by our Constitution’s First Amendment.”  Ave Maria agrees, and until the federal government backs down from requiring us to pay to practice our faith, we will fight it with all of our rights under the law.  We will not violate the tenets of our faith and cower before our own government’s threat of massive fines.

Allowing a U.S. president of any political party or religious affiliation to force conformance to his or her religious or secular orthodoxy through executive action, is a perilous precedent, and I hope all of my colleagues in academia, including Catholic higher education, awaken to this danger.

I want to thank Becket Law for representing Ave Maria University in this legal action.  A university of our small size does not have the resources to fight the federal government and we are grateful to the Becket Fund for representing us without cost.  In their good hands, and with the grace of God, I am confident the Ave Maria University v. Sebelius lawsuit will be successful.

Mr. Towey was appointed President of Ave Maria University in 2011.  He previously served as Assistant to the President of the United States and Director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives from 2002-2006.  He was legal counsel to Mother Teresa of Calcutta from 1985-1997 and traveled with her in the United States and Mexico.

Washington, DC – Today, Florida’s Ave Maria University joined the rising tide of Becket lawsuits against the Obama Administration’s attempt to force contraception, sterilization, and abortion drugs into virtually every health insurance policy in America.  Jim Towey, Ave Maria’s President and former head of the Bush Administration’s Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives is determined to stop the Administration’s assault on religious freedom.

“It is a sad day when an American citizen or organization has no choice but to sue its own government in order to exercise religious liberty rights guaranteed by our nation’s Constitution,” President Towey states.  “Allowing a U.S. president of any political party or religious affiliation to force conformance to his or her religious or secular orthodoxy through executive action, is a perilous precedent.”

Ave Maria University is seeking relief from a federal court in Florida because the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services demands the University offer health plan services that undermine its firmly-held religious convictions.

“The federal mandate puts Ave Maria in a terrible bind,” said Kyle Duncan, General Counsel for Becket Law, which filed suit this morning on behalf of the University.  “Either it betrays its faith and covers the drugs, or else it ends employee health benefits and pays hundreds of thousands in annual fines.”

Ave Maria is a Catholic University dedicated to transmitting authentic Catholic values to students, who can then carry those values to the world.  The Obama Administration’s contraceptive and abortion mandate threatens the very faith that animates Ave Maria’s mission.

Ave Maria University’s case is the fourth lawsuit brought by Becket challenging the Obama administration’s abortion drug mandate. Becket also represents Belmont Abbey College (a Catholic college in North Carolina), Colorado Christian University (a nondenominational Christian University outside Denver), and the Eternal Word Television Network.

 Becket Law is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. Becket has a 17-year history of defending religious liberty for people of all faiths. Its attorneys are recognized as experts in the field of church-state law, and they recently won a 9-0 victory against the federal government at the U.S. Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC.

For more information, or to arrange an interview with one of the attorneys, please contact Melinda Skea at media@becketlaw.org or call 202.349.7224.

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On Thursday, the Obama administration filed its first legal response to Belmont Abbey College’s lawsuit challenging the controversial contraception mandate. This was its first opportunity to explain to the court and the country why the mandate is not illegal and unconstitutional.

So what did the administration say? Not that the mandate is legal; not that the mandate is constitutional. Instead, it asked the court to duck the key issues because the administration has “indicated that they will propose and finalize changes to the regulations” at some unspecified date in the future.

“Apparently, the administration has decided that the mandate, as written and finalized, is constitutionally indefensible,” said Hannah Smith, senior counsel at Becket, which represents Belmont Abbey College. “Its only hope is to ask the court to look the other way based on an empty promise to possibly change the rules in the future.”

The administration’s legal filing relies on an announcement by President Obama at a February 10 press conference, in which he stated that the rules may be changed in the future. But that announcement is not legally binding and does nothing to change the law on the books, which is already harming religious organizations like Belmont Abbey College.

“Promises, promises. The Administration is taking the remarkable position that announcing future plans at a press conference means the courts should ignore what the law on the books actually says,” added Smith. “Since when does ‘Trust me, I’m from the government’ suspend the laws of the land?”

President Obama’s February 10 “accommodation” is coming under increasing fire on numerous fronts. A diverse coalition of over 300 scholars and religious leaders have called the maneuver “unacceptable,” because it still forces many religious organizations to violate their core religious beliefs. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has also denounced it. And in today’s Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer points out that the supposed “solution”—forcing insurance companies to provide contraception for free—is an unprecedented “assault on free enterprise,” because it would allow the government, without any statutory authority, to force private companies to hand out goods and services for free.

“Religious organizations are rightly skeptical that the government will fix the flagrant violation of religious liberty by commandeering the insurance industry,” said Smith. “If this is the best the administration can do to defend its mandate, it won’t last long.”

Becket Law is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. Becket has a 17-year history of defending religious liberty for people of all faiths. Its attorneys are recognized as experts in the field of church-state law, and they recently won a 9-0 victory against the federal government at the U.S. Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC.

For more information, or to arrange an interview with one of the attorneys, please contact Melinda Skea at media@becketlaw.org or call 202.349.7224.

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In response to President Obama’s announcement of a government compromise over the new controversial mandate requiring employers to pay for abortion-causing drugs and other services, over 300 academics have signed a statement entitled: “Unacceptable.”

“This is a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand,” state the scholars. “It is an insult to the intelligence of Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other people of faith and conscience to imagine that they will accept an assault on their religious liberty if only it is covered up by a cheap accounting trick.”

Since its issuance last week, the statement has been joined by over 300 other individuals.  This list continues to grow.  The signatories to this statement come from an extraordinarily broad and diverse array of backgrounds and from a variety of disciplines; they include religious leaders, faculty, staff, and presidents from large research universities, liberal arts colleges, and seminaries.  They also come from a richly diverse spectrum of traditions: Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, LDS, and nonreligious.  They come from widely divergent political views and parties: conservative, moderate, liberal/progressive, democrat, republican, and independent. Some openly identify themselves as life-long Democrats who voted for President Obama in 2008.

To be sure, not every signatory agrees on the morality of the use of contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs.    What unites the signatories is the conviction that the government should not coerce religious institutions or individuals into violating their most deeply held beliefs as a condition of serving or employing those who do not share their faith.

The original drafters of the letter are Harvard’s Mary Ann Glendon, Princeton’s Robert P. George, Notre Dame’s Carter Snead, Catholic University of America’s president John Garvey and Yuval Levin, of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

The signers also include a diverse number of religious leaders such as the Vice President of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops, Archbishop Kurtz, Philadelphia’s Archbishop Chaput,  Prison Fellowship’s Chuck Colson, the Mother Superior for the Sisters of Life,  Dr. Paige Patterson, former President of the Southern Baptist Convention and Reverend Frederick R. Parke.

The complete list is here. However, among the many notable academics are Columbia University’s Department of Medicine and Physician in Chief, Donald Landry; Stanford’s Michael McConnell; University of Chicago, Jean Bethke Elshtain; Notre Dame Law School’s Margaret F. Brinig, University of Toronto’s David Novak, University of Texas Austin’s Thomas Pangle; Emory’s Ann Hartle;  BYU’s Cole Durham; and, Jewish Theological Seminary’s Alan Mittleman.

For more information or to arrange an interview please call or email Melinda Skea at 202.349.7224, media@becketlaw.org.

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Facing a political firestorm, President Obama today announced his intent to make changes to a controversial rule that would require religious institutions, in violation of their conscience, to pay for contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs. But this “compromise” is an exercise in obfuscation, not a good faith effort to solve the problem. Thousands of churches, religious organizations, businesses, individuals, and others will still be forced to violate their religious beliefs.

For example, the fake compromise will not help Becket’s clients Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, Colorado Christian University, and Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), a Catholic media organization. They will still be forced to pay for insurance that provides contraceptive coverage. The White House’s claim that “the insurance companies will pay for it” is silly. For-profit insurance companies aren’t going to donate contraceptives and abortion drugs to employees; the employer will pay for it one way or the other. More fundamentally, Becket’s clients still face the same chilling dilemma they did yesterday: choosing between helping their employees buy immoral abortion drugs or paying huge fines.

“This is a false ‘compromise’ designed to protect the President’s re-election chances, not to protect the right of conscience,” says Hannah Smith, Senior Legal Counsel for Becket. “No one should be fooled by what amounts to an accounting gimmick. Religious employers will still have to violate their religious convictions or pay heavy annual fines to the IRS.”

According to a White House “fact sheet,” some religious employers will no longer be required to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing drugs; coverage for those services will instead be provided for free directly by insurance companies. This does not protect anyone’s conscience. First, the problem is helping employees get abortion drugs, not the cost of providing those drugs. Since providing insurance benefits would still help employees get insurance, religious employers still have to choose between providing health benefits that help employees get abortion drugs, and paying annual fines. Second, thousands of religious organizations self insure, meaning that they will be forced to pay directly for these services in violation of their religious beliefs. Third, it is unclear which religious organizations are permitted to claim the new exemption, and whether it will extend to for-profit organizations, individuals, or non-denominational organizations.

“It is especially telling that the details of this fake ‘compromise’ will likely not be announced until after the election,” said Smith. “Religious freedom is not a political football to be kicked around in an election-year. Rather than providing full protection for the right of conscience, President Obama has made a cynical political play that is the antithesis of ‘hope and change.’”

Becket Law is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. Becket has a 17-year history of defending religious liberty for people of all faiths. Its attorneys are recognized as experts in the field of church-state law.

For more information, or to arrange an interview with one of the attorneys, please contact Melinda Skea at media@becketlaw.org or call 202.349.7224.

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Thirty years ago, a cloistered nun named Mother Angelica started a small television network in her monastery garage to spread the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Today, the network she started is suing the federal government for the right to remain faithful to those teachings.

Becket Law filed suit this morning on behalf of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) against Obama Administration officials who are trying to force the network to pay for contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion drugs.

“The federal government cannot force people to violate their religion like this,” said Mark Rienzi, Senior Counsel at Becket and a constitutional law professor at the Catholic University of America.  “Mother Angelica founded EWTN to spread the teachings of the Catholic Church—not to betray them.”

Over the last three decades EWTN, has become the largest Catholic media organization in the world.  Now run by lay Catholics, the network refuses to pay for contraceptive services and for drugs that destroy human life.  “If we are willing to compromise our Catholic faith, we are selling the soul of the network,” said Michael P. Warsaw, EWTN’s President and Chief Executive Officer.  “The mission of EWTN is not negotiable.”

The network also rejects the government’s offer last month of another year to “adapt” their consciences to its mandate.  “Maybe they missed the word ‘Eternal’ in the name,” quipped Warsaw.  “Betraying God’s love for every human person—even ones who are small and vulnerable—just isn’t something we’ll ever be able to adapt to.”

EWTN’s case is the third lawsuit brought by Becket challenging the Obama administration’s abortion drug mandate. Becket also represents Belmont Abbey College (a Benedictine Catholic college in North Carolina) and Colorado Christian University (a nondenominational Christian University in Colorado) in similar lawsuits.  To date, the government has sought several extensions in those cases rather than answering the claims.

The mandate has been widely criticized from across the political spectrum and by religious leaders of all faiths.  Senator Marco Rubio recently introduced a bill to amend the healthcare law to instruct government bureaucrats to respect conscience rights in their mandates.

Becket Law is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. Becket has a 17-year history of defending religious liberty for people of all faiths. Its attorneys are recognized as experts in the field of church-state law, and they recently won a 9-0 victory against the federal government at the U.S. Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC.

For more information, or to arrange an interview with one of the attorneys, please contact Melinda Skea at media@becketlaw.org or call 202.349.7224.

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After Sebelius’ misleading op-ed in USA today, a misguided blog post by the head of White House Domestic Policy Council, and complete inaccuracies in a recent  press briefing  by White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, it’s time for some serious fact-checking.

 False White House Claim #1: “28 states — more than half — 28 states in the country have laws with contraception coverage mandates.”

 Truth: This is not a true comparison because the state mandates are for the most part insurer mandates, not employer mandates. Moreover, the federal contraceptive mandate is unquestionably broader in scope and narrower in its exemption than all of the 28 states’ comparable laws. Religious organizations in states with a mandate—even those where there is no express exemption—may opt out by simply self-insuring, dropping prescription drug coverage, or offering ERISA plans. The federal mandate permits none of these alternatives, and therefore is much less protective of religious liberty than any of the states’ policies.

False White House Claim #2: “Churches and other houses of worship will be exempt from the requirement to offer insurance that covers contraception.”

Truth: This is at most true only of churches that (1) primarily employ people of their own faith; (2) primarily serve people of their own faith; (3) qualify under Section 6033 of the Internal Revenue Code as a “church”; and (4) have as their “purpose” the inculcation of religious belief. Even then, these churches only “may” be exempted. Thus churches that view their “purpose” as doing unto others as they would have done unto them won’t qualify. And of course this claim avoids the elephant in the room: religious organizations that aren’t houses of worship — like thousands of hospitals, colleges, universities, religious schools, soup kitchens, charities, and others — get absolutely no protection under the White House’s rule.

False White House Claim #3: “States like North Carolina, New York, and California have identical religious employer exemptions.”

Truth: North Carolina’s religious exemption applies to any religious non-profit, not just houses of worship, does not require churches to serve only co-religionists, and does not require that “the” purpose of the non-profit be inculcation of religious values. California’s and New York’s exemptions are similar to the federal mandate, but even they do not include the “may” provision that the federal mandate does.

False White House Claim #4: “Some States like Colorado, Georgia and Wisconsin have no exemption at all.”

Truth: Even in states without a written religious exemption to a contraceptive mandate, there are broad de facto exemptions for those who self-insure or use ERISA plans. The HHS mandate contains neither of those exemptions.

False White House Claim #5: “Drugs that cause abortion are not covered by this policy.”

Truth: Drugs that prevent implantation of a fertilized egg, such as Plan B (the “morning-after pill”) and ella (the “week-after pill”) are covered by the policy. The White House claims that “abortion” can happen only after implantation, but the White House’s beliefs about when an abortion can occur are irrelevant–most Christian denominations in the country, including the Roman Catholic Church, believe that taking drugs to prevent implantation is an immoral abortion. And it is that immoral activity that they have an objection to. Semantic games by the White House will not remove the problem.

Becket is the first and only law firm to legally challenge the Obama Administration’s contraceptive mandate.  This controversial rule requires religious institutions, in violation of their conscience, to pay for contraceptive drugs—including those that could cause an abortion.   The mandate was issued in August 2011, and the Becket Fund quickly raised the alarm by suing on behalf of both Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic liberal arts college founded by Benedictine monks, and Colorado Christian University, an Evangelical Christian college located outside of Denver.  Visit becketlaw.org for more information.

(Photo courtesy of John Arundel)

Becket Law applauds Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) for introducing a bill protecting the conscience of millions of individuals against the Obama Administration’s abortion-drug mandate.

Unlike other pending bills that address conscience issues, Senator Rubio’s bill–The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012—is narrowly focused and establishes a firm religious exemption in the insurance requirements imposed by the Affordable Care Act, rather than leaving it to the discretion of government bureaucrats. The bill ensures that no regulations under the health insurance reform law will force religious individuals to violate their religious beliefs by offering, providing, or purchasing insurance coverage for services that violate their beliefs, and forbids the government from imposing a penalty due to their religious conviction.

“I greatly appreciate the legal expertise of Becket Law,” said Senator Rubio. “Their good work in the courts and ours in the halls of Congress are taking on the Obama Administration and tackling two sides of the same coin in order to preserve religious liberty for all Americans.  I’m proud to have Becket’s support in this effort.”

This bill responds to the Department of Health and Human Services mandate that requires most religious groups to pay for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing drugs in their health insurance plans. Becket represents two religious schools—Belmont Abbey College and Colorado Christian University—in separate federal lawsuits challenging the abortion-drug mandate as a violation of a federal civil rights statute and the 1^st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“Senator Rubio’s bill answers the call from religious individuals and groups across the country who are tired of an imperious government imposing ‘mandates’ on the American people,” said Hannah Smith, Senior Counsel at Becket. “Rubio’s bill is a balanced approach that will prevent the government from penalizing those who are simply being true to their religious faith.”

Becket Law is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. Becket has a 17-year history of defending religious liberty for people of all faiths. Its attorneys are recognized as experts in the field of church-state law.

For more information, or to arrange an interview with one of the attorneys, please contact Melinda Skea at media@becketlaw.org or call 202.349.7224.

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‘We take your religious principles very seriously–so we’re giving you an extra year to get over them.’

Continue reading “Obama Administration Refuses to Change Abortion-Drug Mandate” →

Washington, DC.- Today, Becket filed a lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of Belmont Abbey College over the “Affordable Care Act” (aka “Obamacare”), that forces the College to violate its deeply-held religious beliefs or pay a severe fine. The heart of the lawsuit involves the recently issued Health and Human Services’ mandate that requires thousands of religious organizations to provide, against their conscience, contraceptives they consider to be abortifacients—namely Plan B and Ella—and sterilization.

Although the government has already provided thousands of waivers for a variety of special interest groups including McDonald’s and teachers’ unions, often for reasons of commercial convenience, it refused to accommodate religious organizations. Instead, the government permitted a religious exemption so narrowly defined that it prompted the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to note that even Jesus’ ministry would not qualify.

“A monk at Belmont Abbey may preach on Sunday that pre-marital sex, contraception, and abortions are immoral, but on Monday, the government would force the same monk to pay for students to receive the very drugs and procedures he denounces,” said Hannah Smith, Senior Legal Counsel at Becket. “This is much worse than an un-funded mandate; it is a monk-funded mandate.”

The current exemption from the mandate excludes only certain religious employers whose purpose is to instill religious values that employ and serve only individuals of their same faith. Accordingly, many religious colleges and universities will not qualify for the exemption. Belmont Abbey, as a small Catholic liberal arts college, teaches that contraception, sterilization, and abortion are all against God’s law. The government mandate forces Belmont Abbey and others to make the Hobson’s choice of either violating their deeply-held religious beliefs or paying a heavy fine and terminating their health insurance plans for employees and students.

“The mandate is nothing other than a deliberate attack by the government on the religious beliefs of millions of Americans,” added Hannah Smith. “In the end, the government is forcing religious orders and believers to pay for services they find immoral or pay a stiff fine.”

For more information or to arrange an interview with a Becket  attorney, please contact Melinda Skea at  media@becketlaw.org  or call 202-349-7224. Interviews can be arranged in English, Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

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Becket is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. For over 20 years, it has defended clients of all faiths, including  Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Native Americans, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians (read more). ”

Read more about this on our frequently updated Case Page.

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