Theodore Hesburgh Library, University of Notre Dame

Theodore Hesburgh Library, University of Notre Dame

On Monday the Supreme Court tossed out a lower court decision that previously allowed female employees of the University of Notre Dame to be provided birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Notre Dame is challenging a government workaround that ensures the coverage even though the school refuses to pay for it.

The Supreme Court has now asked the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that originally ruled in favor of the government to revisit the case with an eye to the High Court's Hobby Lobby decision from last summer. In that decision, the Supreme Court ruled that a privately owned for-profit corporation could refuse to provide contraception coverage to its female employees if it was run on religious principles.

After the Hobby Lobby ruling, the government began providing the same workaround to some for-profit companies that it previously had to certain religious nonprofits—they could notify their insurance carrier that they were opting out of coverage and the insurer would pick up the cost. But that wasn't good enough for Notre Dame.



Notre Dame told the justices it would be "complicit in sin" if it consented to this arrangement, which would trigger coverage for what they consider "abortion-inducing" contraceptives… Dozens of lawsuits have been filed to challenge that accommodation as a violation of religious liberty. The Supreme Court could agree this year to resolve the dispute. But Notre Dame, unlike many other Catholic schools and colleges, did not win a temporary exemption. It was told it needed to comply with the administration policy while the appeals went forward.

Courts that have ruled on the issue since the Supreme Court decision have all decided in favor of the government, finding the compromise does not impose a substantial burden on the plaintiffs' religious beliefs. Religious rights are protected under a law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Reuters further reports that even in the wake of Hobby Lobby, most courts have found the government's fix does not infringe on an institution's religious liberties.