Politico - Courts to Hear Birth Control Mandate Lawsuits

By Kathryn Smith & Jennifer Haberkorn, Politico.com

Obamacare’s birth control mandate will go before four different appeals courts over the next three weeks as private businesses that object to the policy on religious liberty grounds bring a barrage of lawsuits that opponents hope to get before the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as this fall.

On Wednesday, two for-profit companies will ask the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to strike the requirement that they provide employees with insurance coverage that includes birth control and other drugs that they say can cause abortion. Three other companies will present oral arguments in different appeals courts by early June. . . .

The business owners say that they have strongly held religious beliefs against the use of contraceptives and that the fines they would incur for not providing them could amount to millions of dollars. They argue that they should be exempt on moral grounds like certain church-affiliated groups even if they are for-profit businesses rather than nonprofit religious groups.

“What the mandate is requiring our clients to do is to arrange for, pay for and provide coverage that runs contrary to their religious beliefs,” said Edward White, senior counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice, which is representing Korte & Luitjohan Contractors. . . .

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