Defeat for Texas Catholic institutions in HHS mandate case

October 06, 2015

In an 11-4 decision, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to reconsider its ruling that the HHS mandate does not substantially burden the religious freedom of the Diocese of Beaumont, Catholic Charities of Southeastern Texas, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Worth, and the University of Dallas, as well as three Protestant institutions.

“How ironic that this most consequential claim of religious free exercise, with literally millions of dollars in fines and immortal souls on the line, should be denied when nearly every other individual religious freedom claim has been upheld by this court,” Judge Edith Jones wrote in her dissent.

She added:

How tragic to see the humiliation of sincere religious practitioners, which, coming from the federal government and its courts, implicitly denigrates the orthodoxy to which their lives bear testament. And both ironic and tragic is the harm to the Judeo-Christian heritage whose practitioners brought religious toleration to full fruition in this nation. Undermine this heritage, as our founders knew, and the props of morality and civic virtue will be destroyed. 

 

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Further information:

• 5th Circuit (With Dissents) Denies En Banc Rehearing In Non-Profit Contraceptive Mandate Cases (Religion Clause)
• Court rejects, again, Texas religious challenge to Obamacare (Austin American-Statesman)