Ruling on Obamacare’s birth control mandate creates legal limbo

(The Christian Science Monitor) A new federal appeals court ruling could put the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate to the test.

The three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis issued a pair of decisions on September 17 that said requiring religiously affiliated employers even  indirectly to provide insurance coverage for some contraceptives would violate the groups’ religious freedoms. The court’s position sets it apart from all other appellate courts that have considered the matter—a split that makes it more likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will address the legality of the ACA’s birth control mandate in its coming term.

“When it comes to the accommodation of religion, there are always a number of variables in play, including the sincerity of the claimants’ asserted beliefs, the strength of the government’s interest in denying the exemption, and the nature of the burden that the government is imposing on religious exercise,” wrote Richard Garnett, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame, in an e-mail. “There is, at present, disagreement and even confusion among scholars and courts over how to identify and evaluate alleged burdens on religion.”