Supreme court stops Federal abortion mandate for fifth time

For the fifth time in a row, the U.S. Supreme Court has stopped the federal government’s contraceptive mandate. In an order issued April 19, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito prevented the federal government from enforcing its contraceptive mandate against a range of Pennsylvania-based religious organizations including Catholic Charities and other Catholic schools and social service organizations connected with the Diocese of Erie and the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

The Supreme Court has previously protected the Little Sisters of the Poor, Hobby Lobby, Wheaton College and the University of Notre Dame. Justice Alito’s order is similar to the preliminary order Justice Sotomayor provided to the Little Sisters of the Poor on New Year’s Eve in 2013.

The order requires the government to brief the Supreme Court next week on why it should be allowed to fine these organizations for refusing to distribute abortion-inducing drugs and devices and other contraceptives.

"How many times must the government lose in court before it gets the message?" asked Lori Windham, Senior Counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents the Little Sisters of the Poor and several other clients challenging the mandate.

"For years now the government has been claiming that places like Catholic Charities and the Little Sisters of the Poor are not 'religious employers' worthy of an exemption," Windham said. "That argument has always been absurd. Every time a religious plaintiff has gone to the Supreme Court for protection from the government’s discriminatory mandate the Court has protected them."

That is what happened to the Little Sisters of the Poor, Wheaton College, Notre Dame and Hobby Lobby. The Supreme Court will be considering a similar case involving an order of Nashville Dominican nuns and several Tennessee and Michigan based Catholic charities at a conference of the Justices on April 24.