Big news from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the law firm representing those
challenging the Obama administration’s contraception mandate:
Today [Tuesday, December
18], a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. handed Wheaton College and Belmont Abbey College a major
victory in their
challenges to the HHS mandate. Last summer, two lower courts had
dismissed the Colleges’ cases as premature. Today, the appellate court
reinstated those cases, and ordered the Obama Administration to report back
every 60 days—starting in mid-February—until the Administration makes good on
its promise to issue a new rule that protects the Colleges’ religious
freedom. The new rule must be issued by March 31, 2013.
“The D.C. Circuit has now made it clear that government
promises and press conferences are not enough to protect religious freedom,”
said Kyle Duncan, General Counsel of the Becket Fund for
Religious Liberty, who argued the case. “The court is not
going to let the government slide by on non-binding promises to fix the problem
down the road.”
The court based its decision on two concessions that
government lawyers made in open court. First, the government promised “it would never enforce
[the mandate] in its current form” against Wheaton, Belmont Abbey or other
similarly situated religious groups. Second, the government promised it
would publish a proposed new rule “in the first quarter of 2013” and would
finalize it by next August. The administration made both concessions under
intense questioning by the appellate judges. The court deemed the
concessions a “binding commitment” and has retained jurisdiction over the case
to ensure the government follows through.
“This is a win not just for Belmont Abbey and Wheaton, but
for all religious non-profits challenging the mandate,” said Duncan. “The government has now been forced to
promise that it will never enforce the current mandate against
religious employers like Wheaton and Belmont Abbey and a federal appellate
court will hold the government to its word.”