U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued a temporary order Tuesday blocking the enforcement of an appeals court's ruling that would have forced Pennsylvania religious groups to fill out forms to avoid penalties for not paying for employees' contraceptive benefits.
Soon after the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals filed documents making its ruling official, two western Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses and a Christian college asked Alito to intervene while they appeal to the Supreme Court, reported The Associated Press.
Per the Affordable Care Act, religious organizations are allowed to opt out of providing and paying to cover morally objectionable medical services, but to opt out, an organization must fill out a one-page form documenting such objections.
The diocese and college say that they shouldn't be forced to document objections because doing so would violate their rights by involving them in a process that enables third-party insurers to provide the coverage, according to the AP.
"How many times must the government lose in court before it gets the message?" Lori Windham, senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told LifeNews. "For years now the government has been claiming that places like Catholic Charities and the Little Sisters of the Poor are not 'religious employers' worthy of an exemption."
"That argument has always been absurd. Every time a religious plaintiff has gone to the Supreme Court for protection from the government's discriminatory mandate the Court has protected them. That's what happened to the Little Sisters of the Poor, Wheaton College, Notre Dame, and Hobby Lobby," Windham continued. "The government really needs to give up on its illegal and unnecessary mandate. The federal bureaucracy has lots of options for distributing contraceptives - they don't need to coerce nuns and priests to do it for them."
The Supreme Court previously issued similar rulings for Hobby Lobby and the University of Notre Dame.
Alito's order asks that the appeals court to respond to the Supreme Court by April 20.
