Dear CV Friend, Monday will be big.
The Supreme Court is expected to announce their decision in two cases involving the HHS Mandate and religious liberty at approximately 10 AM Eastern Time.
I wanted to let you know what's at stake in these cases, as well as what CatholicVote.orghas done to fight for our cherished First Amendment freedoms.
The Supreme Court will decide if business owners can be forced by the federal government to pay for abortion drugs, sterilizations, and harmful birth control medicines in health benefit plans for their employees.
Lawsuits filed by non-profit groups such as schools and charities remain in the legal pipeline, and Monday’s decision will surely impact what happens next.
Because of your support, the CatholicVote.org Legal Defense Fund filed the first case in the country on behalf of a for-profit business in March 2012 for O'Brien Industrial Holdings.
Eight months later, a federal court in Saint Louis (8th Circuit Court of Appeals) granted the company an injunction so they would not have to comply with the HHS mandate for now.
Other businesses were not so lucky. Our second lawsuit on behalf of John Kennedy and Autocam was denied an injunction by a federal court in Cincinnati (6th Circuit Court of Appeals) in December 2012.
So we took our appeal on behalf of John Kennedy and Autocam all the way to the Supreme Court.
Autocam and two other businesses reached the U.S. Supreme Court last fall. The Court decided to hear the two cases involving Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Company. Our case has been held pending the outcome of these two cases. We expect the Court to send our case back to the lower courts based on their decision on Monday.
We remain cautiously optimistic that the current Court, which has been strongly supportive of religious liberty over the last 20 years, will make the right decision on Monday.
In March we launched a national prayer campaign in the run up to the oral argument -- and filed our amicus brief with the court in the two cases that were heard.
Regardless of what happens, the fight for religious freedom will continue -- and you can count on us to NEVER give up.
Thank you for all you have done in defense of this fundamental freedom.
Our prayers this weekend are simple: May Thy will be done.
We’ve fought hard together. Now we await the verdict.
Brian
P.S. The legal challenge to the HHS mandate on behalf of for-profit businesses was argued before the Court on March 25, 2014 -- the Feast of the Annunciation.
Monday is also the day the Church celebrates the Feast of the First Martyrs in Rome. These martyrs endured brutal persecution for their Faith under the Emperor Nero. May they intercede for us in this historic moment for the Church in America.
No comments:
Post a Comment