The suit challenged the law's employer mandate and contraception coverage requirements. | REUTERS Appeals court tosses Obamacare suit

A federal appeals court on Thursday tossed the Liberty University lawsuit that challenged both the Obamacare employer mandate and its contraception coverage requirements.

A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the employer mandate, which the Obama administration last week postponed until 2015, is constitutional. They said that neither the individual nor the employer mandates violate the school’s religious freedom.


The panel rejected the contraception challenge on a technicality — not on the merits — because Liberty did not include that aspect in its first court filings in 2010 and a lower court never heard it. Dozens of court cases nationwide are testing whether employers who object to covering contraception on religious grounds can be required to do so.

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said the school would appeal to the Supreme Court.

The three judges wrote, “”We find that the employer mandate is no monster.”

“Rather, it is simply another example of Congress’s longstanding authority to regulate employee compensation offered and paid for by employers in interstate commerce.” ,” Judges Diana Gribbon Motz, Andre M. Davis and James A. Wynn Jr. wrote in upholding a lower court’s decision

The three judges were named to the bench by Democrats —Motz by former President Bill Clinton, Davis and Wynn by President Barack Obama.

Liberty filed its lawsuit on the day the health law passed in 2010 and it included a religious liberty challenge. When the Obama administration later announced the contraceptive coverage rules, Liberty added a direct challenge to its case.

The Fourth Circuit on Thursday said that it couldn’t rule on the merits of that claim because as an appeals court, it couldn’t rule until one of its district courts did. The judges acknowledged that the same provision – which opponents say includes coverage of drugs that can cause abortions – is being challenged in several other appeals courts. None of the appeals panels have ruled yet.

“Plaintiffs did not challenge these regulations, or make any argument related to contraception or abortifacients, in the district court, in their first appeal before us, or in their Supreme Court briefs,” the judges wrote. “Nevertheless, for the first time in their post-remand briefs, Plaintiffs seek to challenge these regulations.”

The judges spent a significant part of their brief analyzing whether the employer mandate is valid under the constitution’s Commerce Clause authority. It relied heavily on the Supreme Court’s ruling on the individual mandate case brought by 26 states.

In the states’ case, the Supreme Court in June 2012 essentially narrowed the scope of the Commerce Clause by saying the individual mandate did violate the clause — but was permitted under Congress’s taxing authority. The Fourth Circuit judges said the employer mandate has solid footing even under that new analysis of the Commerce Clause.