WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Momentum continues to build against the Affordable Care Act’s potential violation of religious conscience, as 18 states – nearly one-third of the 50 states – have joined as signers of an amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the HHS mandate.
The case they are joining is Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. Et Al, Petitioners vs. Kathleen Sebelius, Et Al. Conestoga Wood Specialties, a kitchen cabinet maker in Pennsylvania, is appealing a 2-1 decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that said the company’s Mennonite owners’ decision to incorporate separates the owners from the company. The HHS mandate applies to the corporation’s business practices.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is representing the Hahn family, which faces $35 million in annual fines if it does not acquiesce to the mandate’s contraception coverage requirement. The case has been petitioned to the Supreme Court, but has not yet been accepted in the Court’s new term.
Multiple businesses and non-profits have sued to fight the mandate. According to ADF's scorecard, 32 of 37 “family-run or religious companies” with rulings related to the mandate “have secured injunctive relief.”
The Georgia Bulletin, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, reports Conestoga’s case is one of several with potential implications regarding religious freedom that have been petitioned to the Supreme Court in the current term. Two that have been accepted relate to whether a town council in New York can open its meetings with a prayer and a Massachusetts law that bars pro-life demonstrators from standing on public sidewalks by creating a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion facilities.
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Since the promulgation of the contraception/abortifacient/sterilization mandate as part of the Affordable Care Act in January 2012, the ADF has represented clients in 15 cases in nine states and the District of Columbia in fighting the mandate’s alleged violations of First Amendment rights related to the practice of religion.