Two church-affiliated schools scored a victory and a Christian-owned chain store was handed a costly defeat this week in their separate ongoing legal battle against the Obama administration’s contraception mandate.
On Thursday, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver upheld a lower court ruling that denied a request by arts and crafts chain store Hobby Lobby to temporarily block enforcement of the mandate. The denial could cost the company up to $1.3 million in daily fines if it doesn’t provide a controversial contraceptive drug through its employees’ insurance plan.
That ruling comes two days after the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., reinstated the lawsuits filed by Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina andWheaton College in Illinois and ordered the government to make good on its promise to draft new rules that could resolve the legal standoff between church-owned schools and hospitals and the Obama administration.
The ruling “turned a page here by adding a new level of supervision to hold the government responsible for the promise it made,” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents the two church-affiliated schools. Read full article.
