Last week we reported the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ dismissal of Autocam Corp. v. Sebelius , a challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s mandated requirement that employers provide insurance that includes contraception, including the morning-after pill, sterilization and reproductive counseling services., deepening a rift among the circuits as to whether for-profit corporations can be exempted from the law’s mandate to cover reproductive health services – Marcia Coyle at Law.com noting that, even back in July, “religion-based challenges to the new health care law likely will bring the controversial reforms back to the nation's high court before the end of the coming term.
That prediction appears even closer with a Reuters article last Thursday reporting that “the Obama administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the legality of the politically volatile provision” specifically with reference to the June decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver favoring arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. stating for-profit companies can sometimes assert religious rights if they do not wish to comply with a federal regulation.”
A second petition, filed by lawyers for Alliance Defending Freedom, postulates that their clients, the Hahn family, "object as a matter of conscience to facilitating certain contraceptives that they believe can destroy human life."
Reuters notes as well that the cases would not be heard until the Supreme Court’s next term which starts next month.
ScotusBlog’s Lyle Denniston's article has more, including links to the 250-page Hobby Lobby petition and the 350-page Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. case out of the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.
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