Wednesday, July 15, 2015

10th Circuit to Little Sisters of the Poor: Comply with contraception mandate


From the Beckett Fund:
Moments ago, in a departure from the U.S. Supreme Court’s protection of the Little Sisters of the Poorlast year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled that the Little Sisters must comply with the government’s HHS mandate. This mandate forces religious ministries to violate their faith or pay massive IRS penalties … 
The Tenth Circuit heard oral argument in this case December of last year, when for the first time since the case began, Sr. Loraine Marie Maguire, Mother Provincial of the Little Sisters of the Poor, delivered a public statement on the case (see statement here). 
Today the Tenth Circuit ruled that government can force the Little Sisters to either violate their faith or pay massive IRS penalties. 
The court held that participating in the government’s contraception delivery scheme is “as easy as obtaining a parade permit, filing a simple tax for, or registering to vote” and that although the Sisters sincerely believe that participating in the scheme “make[s] them complicit in the overall delivery scheme,” the court “ultimately rejects the merits of this claim,” because the court believes the scheme relieves [the Little Sisters] from complicity.” 
The Little Sisters and their attorneys are closely reviewing the court’s decision and will decide soon whether they must seek relief from the Supreme Court. 
“We will keep on fighting for the Little Sisters, even if that means having to go all the way to the Supreme Court,” said Daniel Blomberg, Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. 
The Court’s order similarly harms Christian Brothers Services and Christian Brothers Employee Benefit Trust, the Catholic ministries through which the Little Sisters obtain their health coverage.

6 comments:

WC said...

"Moments ago, in a departure from the U.S. Supreme Court’s protection of the Little Sisters of the Poor last year..."

What the hell is going on! Am I missing something. How can the circuit court go against a ruling already made by SCOTUS in this same exact case?

WC said...

An troubling post on Hot Air today.

If you want to know the left’s playbook for the next war against religion, rewind, all the way back to the late 1800’s. Government vs religion, the first donnybrook. Feds versus the Mormons.

If history is any guide, we religious folks should be getting ready to flee the country. The things the Feds did to the Mormons in the guise of “enforcing proper state marriage laws against your religiously biased views” was… well, Stalinistic wouldn’t be too far.

The Mormons were jailed, had their property seized, their rights to run for office removed, their right to vote removed (indeed, Mormons gave women the right to vote first in America… only for the Feds to take it away. Talk about a war on women!), the right to spousal immunity in trial removed…. on and on and on. There was something truly hypocritical about a judge ruling that Mormons were immoral for polygamy while he had a wife in New York and his mistress sitting next to him on the bench–yet it happened. It didn’t matter if the person was practicing polygamy or not; the Fed persecuted them equally.

This is coming, and coming fast. At least the Mormons will have others with them under the Federal boot this time.

Vanceone on July 14, 2015 at 9:17 PM

Anonymous said...

Such machos, ready to prosecute the nuns, but incapable of enforcing federal law to protect US population.

Pastorius said...

WC,
I had the same question about how the Court of Appeals can reverse a Supreme Court decision.

My guess is, the insurance plan changed this year, so they believe they are able to readdress the issue, since the structure is different.

If you read the article, there is a specific legal portion of the policy that the Court of Appeals is using as an excuse to be able to mess with the Nuns.

It's disgusting.

It reminds me of the phrase, "The Banality of Evil." It's a bureaucratic, legalistic, Kafkaesque vice on the head of the Nuns.

Always On Watch said...

Pasto,
My guess is, the insurance plan changed this year, so they believe they are able to readdress the issue, since the structure is different.

Probably. Something about a legal loophole, which only a lawyer can understand.

Fighting all these court battles against the regime costs big bucks.

Always On Watch said...

I love WC's comment:

What the hell is going on! Am I missing something. How can the circuit court go against a ruling already made by SCOTUS in this same exact case?

The Left is relentless beyond description. Sheesh.