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Federal Judge Brian Cogan handed a major victory to the cause of religious freedom—and a major defeat to egregious government overreach—with his ruling in favor of Catholic schools and agencies in the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Rockville Centre over an onerous Affordable Care Act requirement.
It was a high-stakes church-state struggle and, this time, the Church won.
The judge issued a permanent injunction against the requirement, meaning that Catholic organizations like Cardinal Spellman and Msgr. Farrell high schools and ArchCare nursing homes and health care programs do not have to violate their religious consciences by providing access to contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization in their employee health insurance plans.
Indeed, Judge Cogan found that the requirement itself, known as the HHS mandate, was in violation of an important American principle as spelled out in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The injunction was the first permanent injunction issued in any of the lawsuits brought against the HHS mandate by religious organizations around the country—and that’s good reason to celebrate.
We’re also hoping that this victory, with its reasoning spelled out in a 41-page decision, sets the path to more of the same.
Right from the start, President Obama and his secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius, knew they had a hot potato in their hands when they announced that all health insurance policies, with limited exemptions for houses of worship, would have to provide contraceptive coverage.
When Catholic and other religious groups began loudly protesting, the administration seemed to backpedal a bit then came up with a new plan, which essentially created an artificial two-tier system, with religious organizations getting a lower level of Constitutional protection than houses of worship. Under that plan, the organizations still would not be exempt from the HHS mandate, but they could be accommodated by having their insurance companies provide the coverage directly to those who wanted it.
Cogan, however, agreed with the Catholic groups, saying that even such third-party accommodation violates the groups’ religious rights because they consider compliance with the mandate “an endorsement of such coverage,” which also “compels affirmation of a repugnant belief.”
The judge also noted that the hefty fines the agencies would face by not complying with the mandate amounted to “substantial coercive pressure.”
While we applaud this ruling by Judge Cogan, we also want to cite Cardinal Dolan for his leadership on the issue. He was unwavering in his opposition to the mandate and articulate in his reasoning, while never resorting to name-calling or worse in an attempt to stoke support. He resolutely made his case to all three branches of government, ultimately finding success in the court system where the president and Congress fell short.
We don’t yet know how things will play out from here. This New York case may be appealed, and there are many other cases being heard at various levels of the judiciary with mixed results.
Right now, though, we’re savoring a big win—a victory that affirms that religious freedom, our “First Freedom” guaranteed in the Constitution, extends beyond merely being free to choose how we worship but also how we act in accord with our religious beliefs.
