Supreme Court Issues Injunction Against Contraception Mandate

Kevin Glass | January 24, 2014 4:39 PM

This afternoon, the Supreme Court issued an order for an injunction against forcing private businesses to apply for an exemption to Obamacare's contraception mandate.

The Little Sisters of the Poor - a Catholic group that cares for the old and infirm - have challenged Obamacare's contraception mandate on the grounds that it violates religious liberty. The Supreme Court is considering the case, and while the case is under consideration, it has issued a temporary order that businesses will not have to provide contraception coverage, or to follow the Obama Administration's "guidelines" to fill out the paperwork required to provide contraception coverage indirectly.

As Buzzfeed's Chris Geidner reported:

The unsigned order of the court “should not be construed as an expression of the Court’s views on the merits” of the case, currently on appeal before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Filed with Justice Sonia Sotomayor, she referred the request to the entire court. She had issued a temporary injunction on Dec. 31 while considering the nuns’ request for an injunction during the appeal. There were no filed dissents to the continued injunction.

There's no timeline for when SCOTUS will issue its final ruling.

For an administration seeking to win a skeptical public over to ObamaCare, the Justice Department could not have picked a more sympathetic foe for a Supreme Court fight than The Little Sisters of the Poor.
The administration is fighting back against a lawsuit filed by the non-profit, which does not meet ObamaCare's classification of a "religious employer" because it hires and tends to people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds.
Supporters say The Little Sisters of the Poor epitomize service by caring for the elderly poor and those deemed "worthless" by society. In the United States, it runs 30 homes where hundreds of its employees provide nursing and end of life care.