Finally. A serious reprieve for the Little Sisters of the Poor, who courageously have been fighting nonstop for FIVE YEARS against being forced to implement the Obama Administration’s HHS mandates that demanded the Catholic sisters to include anti-Catholic procedures such as contraceptives to their employees. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the Sisters last week.
Timeline Highlights
The sister filed their initial lawsuit in the federal district court of Denver, CO, September 24, 2013. That court ruled against the Little Sisters of the Poor and refused to grant them even temporary relieve from the HHS mandate. This meant the nuns would be forced to pay up to $70 million in government-imposed fines per year (about $100 per employee, per day, in each of the sister’s 27 homes where they serve the elderly poor).
$70 million per year to the government because the Sisters refused to violate their faith. Who could imagine this would happen in a country founded on religious freedom?!!
Of course the sisters petitioned the higher court, the U.S. Supreme Court, for temporary relief. It was granted, in December 2013.
But a subsequent lower court ruling (the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals) again ruled against the Sisters, in July 2015. In November of the same year the US Supreme Court agreed to hear their case, consolidated with six other nonprofits fighting the same battle—Zubik, East Texas Baptist University/Houston Baptist University, Geneva College, Priests for Life, Southern Nazarene and the Archbishop of Washington.
Why didn’t the Hobby Lobby ruling apply to the sisters?
Remember the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby’s right to not to implement the HHS mandates against their religious conscience? That decision should have resolved all other similar cases.
But many lower courts instead ruled that the government’s rules for nonprofit organizations work differently that those for for-profit companies such as Hobby Lobby. Absurd, but it meant the Sisters had to continue their fight.
The Big Win
Last week the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Little Sisters of the Poor. They won their fight for religious liberty.
As the Sisters’ website explains: The Supreme Court unanimously overturned the lower court rulings against the Little Sisters, ordered the government not to fine the Little Sisters, and said the lower courts should provide the government an opportunity “to arrive at an approach going forward that accommodates the petitioner’s religious beliefs.”
The unanimous decision by the Supreme Court was a big win for the Little Sisters. But that does not mean anyone lost.
As the Little Sisters have argued all along, the ruling in no way bars the government from providing these services to women who want them as long as the government stops trying to take over the Little Sisters’ health plan. In fact, any alternative delivery method the government chooses would likely be able to be applied—not only to women in religious plans—but to the tens of millions of women in corporate and government plans HHS had previously exempted from the mandate.
President Obama confirmed that the HHS mandate was unnecessary by affirming that the government was still able to providing the mandated services for free to any woman who wanted them even after the Court ruling protected the Little Sisters from complying with the mandate. The President’s willingness to acknowledge that the Little Sisters’ religious objections have never threatened any woman’s access to contraception—that women can get that coverage “right now” and can “continue” to get it even without a takeover of the Little Sisters’ health plan — was the natural outcome of the evolution of the government’s argument in this case.
After Oral Arguments
Following oral arguments, the government admitted to the Court that it could provide the services in ways other than those required in the contraception mandate. It also admitted that the mandate required the Little Sisters’ participation and the use of their plan.
This admission meant the Court did not need to decide on the merits of the government’s original argument that its interests should override the Little Sisters’ religious liberty.
With the government’s admission, the path was cleared for the Supreme Court to tell the lower courts to reconsider their rulings in light of the government’s admissions and help ensure the government settled “on an approach that accommodates” the Little Sisters’ beliefs.
Although the form a final solution takes will be finalized down the road, the unanimous decision by the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court decisions against the Little Sisters and protect religious providers from fines is a big win—a win that helps all Americans.
And, President Obama’s acknowledgment that the government can continue to provide these services without the Little Sisters and their health plan is a major affirmation of the Little Sisters’ argument for the last five years—FIVE YEARS!— that there were obviously solutions and never a need for this matter to have to go to Court. In light of the Court’s decision and the President’s statements, the Little Sisters are hopeful the government will quickly decide on a workable solution so the Little Sisters can return their full attention to their mission of serving the elderly poor.