SUPREME COURT WILL HEAR CASES AGAINST OBAMACARE’S ABORTION PILL MANDATE

From ADF January 10, 2014

Alliance Defending Freedom files opening brief at U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Conestoga Wood Specialties: Read The Brief

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on November 26, 2013 to review two lawsuits challenging the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate, including one filed by Conestoga Wood Specialties and its owners, the Hahn family. Alliance Defending Freedom represents the Hahn family and we are asking the High Court to declare the mandate illegal and unconstitutional.

The other case accepted by the Supreme Court involves the Oklahoma-based company Hobby Lobby, run by the Green family, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

Both cases are anticipated to be heard in early 2014.

WHAT'S AT STAKE

The freedom to live according to our faith and to honor God in our work.

Freedom from the threat of crippling fines for resisting illegal government mandates.

Freedom from government intrusion on a family business' private moral decisions.

The free and full participation of people of faith in all areas of public life, including the marketplace.

THE ABORTION PILL MANDATE

Obamacare’s abortion pill mandate forces most employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to offer insurance that covers abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. Job creators who don’t comply face the threat of heavy penalties—$100 per day, per employee.

“If the government has the power to put families out of business and working people out of jobs to impose its agenda, there is no limit to the damage it can do to freedom.”

CASE SUMMARY

Conestoga Wood Specialties faces nearly $35 million a year in fines for standing up for their faith!

Conestoga Wood Specialties has been forced into a choice no American should have to make: comply with an illegal mandate to abandon the family's faith or face a nearly $3 million  per month "faith fine" that would put the family out of business, and threaten the jobs of nearly 1,000 working people.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys and allied attorneys Randall Wenger and Charles Proctor represent Conestoga Wood Specialties in a case challenging the abortion pill mandate.

  *   *   *   *   *

Hawaii Joins States Defending Affordable Care Act

News Release from Office of the Attorney General January 30, 2014

HONOLULU – Attorney General David M. Louie joined 14 states and the District of Columbia in signing an amicus curiae brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the court to strike down a lower court’s ruling that would allow for-profit companies to deny essential healthcare to female employees based on the religious beliefs of the company’s owners. 

The friend-of-the-court brief, co-authored by California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, urges the Court to overturn a ruling in Kathleen Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 applies to for-profit businesses and the businesses can claim religious exemptions from the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ruling means a for-profit company could deny women coverage for contraception, which is covered by health plans under the ACA as a critical preventive service. 

Additionally, the brief urges the Court to affirm the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit’s ruling in a companion case, Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Kathleen Sebelius, that came to the opposite conclusion of the Tenth Circuit court, and held that for-profit companies could not claim religious exemptions from the ACA coverage requirement. 

“Measures adopted by States, and now the federal government, to expand affordable access to contraceptives through health plan coverage provisions are narrowly tailored to further compelling public interests in promoting gender equity and achieving significant health, social, and economic benefits,” the brief states. 

“An employer should not be allowed to restrict access to essential services, including contraception, because of the religious views of the employer,” Attorney General Louie said, "particularly when the right to these services is protected under federal law.” Department of the Attorney General Press Release 2014-05 

A copy of the brief can be found at: LINK