Judge Dismisses Giant, Whiny Lawsuit Claiming Obamacare Violates Religious Freedom

[rug]

Tuesday, Jul 17, 2012
Erin Gloria Ryan

Well, that was quick. After several chest pounding weeks of rallying the troops around a lawsuit that claimed the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate violated religious freedom, the sanctimonious roar of Republican Attorneys General from seven states was squished by the gavel of a federal judge who says the case has no merit. What's a quixotic conservative to do?

The ill-fated lawsuit was brought by Republicans from Nebraska, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas, along with a few Nebraska religious organizations. The suit claimed that requiring religious-run hospitals, schools, and some charities to allow female employees the option of using their employer-provided medical insurance to purchase contraception and sterilization violated religious freedom, because churchy employers should be able to have the right to make it a big pain the ass for their female employees to not be pregnant. The suit also argued that the notion of providing insurance plans that cover contraception was so awful, so heinous to some holy rollers, that they'd likely attempt to narrow the population they served so that they could qualify for a religious exemption. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater over birth control. How very Christlike.

Judge Warren Urbom, an 86-year-old Nixon federal judge who handled the case, disagreed, saying the Attorneys General didn't have the right to bring a suit against the federal government — religious organizations don't have to immediately comply with the requirement; the administration gave them until 2013 to get their shit together. The feds also plan to allow religious institutions that don't fall under the exemption to pass the entire cost of contraception on to the insurance company, so no priests have to get icky buh-gina cooties on their money.

So now what? The Attorneys General can appeal Judge Urbom's ruling that they don't have the legal standing to file the suit to circuit court. They can also do what other religious organizations have done and just bombard the judicial system with Affordable Care Act lawsuits, continuing to bang their heads against the wall until a grown up tells them to stop. But since most other non-religious employers will be compelled to start covering birth control at no cost next month, time's running out. Maybe the apocalypse will save us all from the indignity of knowing that a woman who works for a Catholic hospital is getting free contraception.

http://jezebel.com/5926838/judge-dismisses-giant-whiny-lawsuit-claiming-obamacare-violates-religious-freedom

[MiniMe]

1. What surprises me is that Virginia isn't one of them

Unless I missed something. Ken whatever his name is is such a whiny ass little bastard, and he is running for Gov of VA.

[southernyankeebelle]

5. Cuccinelli is his name. I am not sure if I spelled it right. But am catholic and I don't know

any catholic women who does not use the pill. They don't want the state or the church to tell them when to have children.

[MiniMe]

6. That's the name

knew what it was, but had no idea how to spell it. I think you may have spelled it right. He filed suit after the ACA was passed. Don't know who is the bigger ass, Cucc or McDonnell.

[southernyankeebelle]

8. They are equal asses.

[struggle4progress]

2. "... the vast majority of Catholic women in the U.S. use artificial birth control ..."

Catholic Groups Fight Contraceptive Rule, But Many Already Offer Coverage
by JULIE ROVNER
December 2, 2011
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/12/02/143022996/catholic-groups-fight-contraceptive-rule-but-many-already-offer-coverage

[rug]

3. It's that prior coverage of contraception that sinks these lawsuits.

[struggle4progress]

4. IIRC, the issue's been repeatedly litigated in the past, too, with the same result: out ya go

[Igel]

7. Not what I expected.

I know some people that are opposed to doctors. Perhaps some kinds of naturopathy, but that's about it.

The best you get out of them is the general attitude is that Obama is Caesar. That's sure to sit well with DU's very own "no separation of church and state" crowd arguing that the ACA is America's Xian duty. (*, Clinton, Bush I, Reagan, Carter, Nixon ... were also caesars.)