2016 Victories: Massive Victory For Religious Liberty at the Supreme Court

This is the latest installment in a year-end series looking back at a few of the many victories by the ACLJ in 2016.

There’s no way around it: President Obama and his Administration have waged war against faith-based organizations like the Little Sisters of the Poor. And in 2016, that war intensified – posing a large threat to religious liberty.

In short, pro-life ministries – such as Christian nuns serving the poor – are being forced to pay for or provide abortion pills under President Obama’s abortion-pill mandate. The consequence for refusing to do so because of one’s faith? Large, crippling fines.

The message the Obama Administration was sending could not have been clearer: reject your faith or pay the consequence.

But this was not new ground for the ACLJ. We have helped defeat the abortion-pill mandate for Christian businesses at the Supreme Court and have won multiple cases. So we answered the call to fight for religious liberty yet again.

We filed a crucial amicus brief at the Supreme Court on behalf of about 100,000 Americans. It argued that “these groups should receive a religious exemption and not be forced to either violate their beliefs or pay stiff fines for failing to comply with the mandate.”

In response, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ordered lower courts to help the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious organizations work out a compromise with the Obama Administration, siding with faith-based organizations against the Obama Administration’s false argument that they had no other ways to implement their abortion-pill agenda. We believe this is a big step in the right direction as litigation continues back at the appellate level.

This is a major victory for life and religious liberty in America.

To help the ACLJ continue to have the resources we need to make these victories possible and continue these fights, please consider making a Tax-Deductible donation to the ACLJ through our year-end Matching Challenge. Your gift will be doubled dollar-for-dollar through the end of the year.

You can read more in the ACLJ’s 2016 Victories series here.

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