Justice Sonia Sotomayor, president Obama's first appointee to the Supreme Court, yesterday issued a stay of enforcement by the government of the Obamacare requirements to provide insurance with "free" contraceptive provisions. Specifically, Sotomayor granted a request for a stay in a case brought by an order of nuns, the Little Sisters of the Poor, seeking a determination that the Obamacare requirements violated their religious freedom.
There have been a number of decisions by courts around the country deciding whether or not the Obamacare mandate on contraception an abortion pills violates religious freedom, and those decisions have been split. The Supreme Court has already decided that it will take up the issue in a few months.
What is key about the New Year's Eve decision by Sotomayor is that this very liberal justice ruled against the government. Normally, one would expect Justice Sotomayor to side with the Obama administration on questions regarding the constitutionality of Obamacare and its many rules and regulations. It is silly to read too much into the stay issued by Sotomayor; for example, it is not an indication that she will vote to overturn the regulations on contraceptives as an intrusion on religious freedom. Nevertheless, her act does show that there is a reasonable chance that the Supreme Court will rule against the Obamacare rules.
In fairness, the idea of requiring an order of nuns to provide employees with "free" birth control and abortion pills, is perhaps the best setting that opponents of the rule could even hope to see. The feds are stupid not to have exempted this group from the coverage of the rules.
There have been a number of decisions by courts around the country deciding whether or not the Obamacare mandate on contraception an abortion pills violates religious freedom, and those decisions have been split. The Supreme Court has already decided that it will take up the issue in a few months.
What is key about the New Year's Eve decision by Sotomayor is that this very liberal justice ruled against the government. Normally, one would expect Justice Sotomayor to side with the Obama administration on questions regarding the constitutionality of Obamacare and its many rules and regulations. It is silly to read too much into the stay issued by Sotomayor; for example, it is not an indication that she will vote to overturn the regulations on contraceptives as an intrusion on religious freedom. Nevertheless, her act does show that there is a reasonable chance that the Supreme Court will rule against the Obamacare rules.
In fairness, the idea of requiring an order of nuns to provide employees with "free" birth control and abortion pills, is perhaps the best setting that opponents of the rule could even hope to see. The feds are stupid not to have exempted this group from the coverage of the rules.
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