Here’s some good news coming from Wheaton College you probably didn’t hear about in the news the past few day. Wheaton College stands for religious liberty and won! Thankfully, it was reported in the Federalist.
And I conclude with some bad news from the State of Washington. I know I should end a post on the positive. In this case, the opposites are related. This really is a MUST read. So read on.
Another judge signaled a win for religious liberty by barring the federal government from forcing the Christian school to pay for employee birth control.
24, 2018 By Nicole Russell
A judge ruled Thursday the government would violate federal civil rights laws if it forced Wheaton College to provide services like contraceptives in its health care plans against its religious beliefs, and granted a permanent injunction against it.
When the Obama administration instituted a contraceptive mandate several years ago through the Health and Human Services department, Wheaton College was one of the dozens of organizations to immediately oppose it. Wheaton, one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country, often referred to as the “Harvard of Christian schools,” argued being forced to pay for the contraceptives would violate its religious rights. The permanent injunction bars the government from ever forcing the school to pay.
This is the first district court order offering permanent protection from the HHS mandate after the Supreme Court’s 2016 decision in Zubik v. Burwell, which said that the government could not find religious groups for following their faith and said it could find other ways to provide services to the women who want them. The injunction not only protects them from Obama’s “old” mandate but from any similar, future mandates as well.
Attorney Diana Verm, an attorney with Becket, the non-profit organization which represented Wheaton along with another firm, and also Little Sisters of the Poor, in their fight against the HHS mandate, told me in an e-mail, “The district court had ruled against Wheaton before because of prior court of appeals precedent that has since been overturned by the Supreme Court in Zubik v. Burwell, where the Supreme Court told the government it could not find groups like the Little Sisters and Wheaton College for following their faith.”
A portion of the injunction says, “After reconsideration of their position, Defendants now agree that enforcement of the currently operative rules regarding the “contraceptive mandate” against employers with sincerely held religious objections would violate RFRA, and thus do not oppose Wheaton’s renewed motion for injunctive and declaratory relief.”
Wheaton College’s values are steeped in Christian tradition. Originally founded in 1860 by prominent abolitionist Jonathan Blanchard, the motto, “For Christ and His Kingdom” guides everything it does. Thus, in 2012, after receiving no response from HHS about its concerns regarding the mandate, Wheaton filed a lawsuit to defend its right to run its school according to its religious principles, not unlike, various other, similar, religious organizations.
In a statement, Phillip Ryken, president of Wheaton College said, “We are grateful to God that the court recognized Wheaton’s religious identity and protected our ability to affirm the sanctity of human life. The government should never have tried to force us to provide drugs and services against our faith, but that episode is now behind us.”
The complex and laborious issue regarding the HHS contraceptive mandate went to theSupremeCourtfivetimes; each time the Supreme Court ruled in favor of protecting religious groups. The most promising thing about this current order, in terms of religious liberty, is that the judge essentially admits federal government violated the law when it demanded organizations provide contraception in the first place, and that’s why the judge granted temporary protection to religious objectors. Hopefully, other judges will follow suit and declare injunctions for the other organizations in limbo, who still oppose the mandate, and are waiting for similar recognition and protection of their religious rights.Nicole Russell is a senior contributor to The Federalist. She lives in northern Virginia with her four kids. Follow her on Twitter @russell_nm
Wheaton College Wins While Washington State Loses
While we rejoice over the Wheaton College victory, here in the State of Washington the Washington State Senate passed HB 1523, a bill that requires every insurance plan to pay for every form of birth control.In broad terms, the bill requires that Washington State require every insurance plan to cover everything that was required under federal law as of December 31, 2016.
The bill is essentially the Washington State Legislature’s way of saying “We like everything Obama did around health care and we hate everything that Trump will do” without actually knowing what those things are.The most controversial portion of the bill, however, is the effort to require every insurance policy to cover drugs that cause abortions and therefore violate the conscience of millions of Americans.
With this bill, however, the Washington State legislature is saying that Washington businesses will not have the same freedom businesses in the rest of the country enjoy when it comes to exercising one’s conscience.Unfortunately, the relief that was available for Hobby Lobby will not be available for Washington businesses.
The bill was passed on largely party lines with Republicans Joe Fain and Maureen Walsh joining all the Democrats to pass it.Still, litigation is likely to follow on constitutional grounds.
We need to remember that elections have consequences. With the loss of two State senators, the left now has a free hand to pass legislation that a powerless GOP can’t stop.We can rejoice for the Wheaton College victory but we need to really pray for the State of Washington.
-Michael Holtzinger