Post by Guadalupe on Jun 20, 2018 22:01:58 GMT -5
Judge ends Obama birth control mandate at 2 Christian colleges
Friday, June 15, 2018 | Michael F. Haverluck (OneNewsNow.com)
After seven years, a federal district court judge in Iowa has permanently stopped the enforcement of Former President Barack Obama’s birth control mandate at two Christian colleges – so that both are no longer forced to provide health insurance coverage for contraception and abortion-inducing drugs.
Many are thanking the Trump administration for expanding the religious exemption last October so that colleges and other Christian institutions and organizations can live out their biblical convictions regarding the sanctity of human life.
“The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa on Tuesday issued an order protecting the religious freedom of Dordt College of Iowa and Cornerstone University of Michigan by blocking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from enforcing its mandate,” The Christian Post (CP) reported. “The mandate was first implemented in 2011 by the Barack Obama administration – using the authority of the Affordable Care Act – with a narrow exemption for faith groups and religiously motivated employers.”
Faith above mandate
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor – whose Christian legal firm represented both colleges in the lawsuit – stressed how Obama’s directive violated employees’ religious liberty, which is guaranteed by the United States Constitution.
“Everyone in America – and especially Christian college communities – should be free to live, study and work consistently with their deeply held beliefs without the threat of unjust punishment,” Baylor contended in an ADF news release. “Under the HHS mandate, religious employers were given no real choice: They had to either comply and abandon their religious freedom or resist and pay severe fines for their faith.”
He commended U.S. District Judge Mark W. Bennett for deciding on Tuesday to protect the constitutional right of those on the two Christian colleges so that they can live their lives on campus according to their faith.
“The district court in Iowa has rightly blocked enforcement of this mandate to protect the colleges’ religious freedom,” Baylor affirmed.
Obama’s mandate was also declared to be in violation of federal law in the judgment issued by the district court judge.
"Plaintiffs have demonstrated – and Defendants now concede – that requiring Plaintiffs to comply with [the HHS mandate], to the extent such compliance contradict Plaintiffs' religious beliefs, violates their rights protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act," the federal court declared, according to CP.
A win grounded on biblical principles
Dordt College President Erik Hoekstra rejoiced that the five-year legal battle ended in his school’s – and God’s – favor.
"This final resolution provides Dordt with the continued freedom we have always enjoyed – specifically, to decide on the basis of our deeply held religious beliefs the type and scope of covered services within the health plan we offer to our employees," Hoekstra stated in the ADF news release.
He went on to assert that Dordt was fighting a legal battle so that God’s rule – not the government’s – would reign supreme on campus, and stressed his belief that a bold stand now will protect it from attacks in the future.
"While this case was about health care coverage, we took this journey to assert our contention about religious expression more generally, believing that if we allowed government to over-assert in this area now, any future over-assertions in other areas would be more difficult to defend without this result," Hoekstra added, according to the Sioux City Journal.
ADF filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Sioux City, Iowa, back in 2013 on behalf of the two Christian colleges, contending in its complaint that the requirement of Obama’s mandate for the schools to provide medical coverage for abortion-inducing drugs forced them to defy their Christian faith.
“Dordt and Cornerstone University … had argued that the requirement to provide coverage of the morning-after or week-after pills – which many Christians consider to be abortion drugs – caused them to violate their religious beliefs, thus violating their religious freedoms,” the Sioux City Journal‘s Nick Hytrek recounted from the complaint.
Landslide tearing down Obama’s mandate on the horizon?
Dort College and Cornerstone University are not the only Christian colleges in America seeking to exercise their religious freedom by putting an end to Obama’s birth control mandate.
“Recently, two other federal district courts issued similar orders for four Christian universities in Oklahoma, a Christian college and seminary in Indiana and a Christian university in California,” CP’s Anugrah Kumar noted.
Friday, June 15, 2018 | Michael F. Haverluck (OneNewsNow.com)
After seven years, a federal district court judge in Iowa has permanently stopped the enforcement of Former President Barack Obama’s birth control mandate at two Christian colleges – so that both are no longer forced to provide health insurance coverage for contraception and abortion-inducing drugs.
Many are thanking the Trump administration for expanding the religious exemption last October so that colleges and other Christian institutions and organizations can live out their biblical convictions regarding the sanctity of human life.
“The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa on Tuesday issued an order protecting the religious freedom of Dordt College of Iowa and Cornerstone University of Michigan by blocking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from enforcing its mandate,” The Christian Post (CP) reported. “The mandate was first implemented in 2011 by the Barack Obama administration – using the authority of the Affordable Care Act – with a narrow exemption for faith groups and religiously motivated employers.”
Faith above mandate
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor – whose Christian legal firm represented both colleges in the lawsuit – stressed how Obama’s directive violated employees’ religious liberty, which is guaranteed by the United States Constitution.
“Everyone in America – and especially Christian college communities – should be free to live, study and work consistently with their deeply held beliefs without the threat of unjust punishment,” Baylor contended in an ADF news release. “Under the HHS mandate, religious employers were given no real choice: They had to either comply and abandon their religious freedom or resist and pay severe fines for their faith.”
He commended U.S. District Judge Mark W. Bennett for deciding on Tuesday to protect the constitutional right of those on the two Christian colleges so that they can live their lives on campus according to their faith.
“The district court in Iowa has rightly blocked enforcement of this mandate to protect the colleges’ religious freedom,” Baylor affirmed.
Obama’s mandate was also declared to be in violation of federal law in the judgment issued by the district court judge.
"Plaintiffs have demonstrated – and Defendants now concede – that requiring Plaintiffs to comply with [the HHS mandate], to the extent such compliance contradict Plaintiffs' religious beliefs, violates their rights protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act," the federal court declared, according to CP.
A win grounded on biblical principles
Dordt College President Erik Hoekstra rejoiced that the five-year legal battle ended in his school’s – and God’s – favor.
"This final resolution provides Dordt with the continued freedom we have always enjoyed – specifically, to decide on the basis of our deeply held religious beliefs the type and scope of covered services within the health plan we offer to our employees," Hoekstra stated in the ADF news release.
He went on to assert that Dordt was fighting a legal battle so that God’s rule – not the government’s – would reign supreme on campus, and stressed his belief that a bold stand now will protect it from attacks in the future.
"While this case was about health care coverage, we took this journey to assert our contention about religious expression more generally, believing that if we allowed government to over-assert in this area now, any future over-assertions in other areas would be more difficult to defend without this result," Hoekstra added, according to the Sioux City Journal.
ADF filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Sioux City, Iowa, back in 2013 on behalf of the two Christian colleges, contending in its complaint that the requirement of Obama’s mandate for the schools to provide medical coverage for abortion-inducing drugs forced them to defy their Christian faith.
“Dordt and Cornerstone University … had argued that the requirement to provide coverage of the morning-after or week-after pills – which many Christians consider to be abortion drugs – caused them to violate their religious beliefs, thus violating their religious freedoms,” the Sioux City Journal‘s Nick Hytrek recounted from the complaint.
Landslide tearing down Obama’s mandate on the horizon?
Dort College and Cornerstone University are not the only Christian colleges in America seeking to exercise their religious freedom by putting an end to Obama’s birth control mandate.
“Recently, two other federal district courts issued similar orders for four Christian universities in Oklahoma, a Christian college and seminary in Indiana and a Christian university in California,” CP’s Anugrah Kumar noted.
link