Just before she dropped the ball in Times Square, Supreme Court
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dropped a bomb on the roll out of Obamacare.
According to the New York Times,
Justice Sotomayor issued an emergency stay of the Affordable Care Act’s
contraception mandate last night, just hours before it was to take
effect. The Justice was the last resort for the petitioner, the Little
Sisters of the Poor, after the 10th Circuit refused to grant relief to
their emergency petition. The stay applies only to the sisters, and
other Catholic organizations using Christian Brothers Employee Benefit Trust as their health insurance provider.
There was no immediate reaction from President Obama who is
vacationing in Hawaii, but while arguing against a stay in the lower
court Monday, the Justice Department asserted that they had already
provided an “accomodation” for those with religious objections:
“To opt out of providing contraceptive coverage, Little Sisters need only certify that they are nonprofit organizations that hold themselves out as religious and that, because of religious objections, they are opposed to providing coverage for some or all contraceptive services.”The Little Sisters argue that the administration’s compromise still forces the them to find an insurer who will cover sterilization, contraception, and abortion-inducing drugs:
“The Sisters would also be required to sign a form that triggers the start of that coverage. In good conscience, they cannot do that. So the ‘accommodation’ still violates their religious beliefs.”
The order gives the Obama administration until Friday morning to reply.
So much for an easy Obamacare roll out.
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