Supreme Court Allows Obamacare Challenge by Liberty U
Stephen Feller
A lawsuit brought by Liberty University challenging part of the Affordable Care Act’s (Obamacare) requirement for employers to fund birth control through insurance for employees has been given new life.
Fox News reported that the Supreme Court on Monday ordered 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., to reconsider the suit, which argues that the employer mandate in the law violates protection of religious practice held in the First Amendment.
Although the Court upheld Obamacare in a 2012 on the basis that it is built around a legal tax, the ruling did not say lawsuits could not be filed which challenge other parts of the law.
The Christian university sued to prevent it from being forced to pay for birth control, which it says violate its religious principles that are protected under the the Constitution.
A federal judge rejected the claim in 2010, and an appeals court also said the suit was both premature and did not address the actual argument the school was making.
The appeals court based its ruling on the Anti-Injunction Act, which prevents a tax from being challenged in court before it has been levied. Most of Obamacare will not go into effect until 2014, including penalties for employers not providing health insurance for employees and citizens not having some type of personal health insurance coverage.
“Today’s ruling breathes new life into our challenge to Obamacare,” Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, which filed the suit on behalf of the school, said Monday. “Our fight against Obamacare is far from over.”