The following report from the Cardinal Newman Society appeared December 19 on LifeSiteNews.com.
On Tuesday a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. handed Belmont Abbey College and Wheaton College — and all religious colleges — a major victory in their challenges to the HHS mandate.
Earlier this year, two lower courts had dismissed the colleges’ cases as premature but Tuesday, an appellate court reinstated those cases. The Cardinal Newman Society and 15 Catholic colleges recommended in The Newman Guide had joined in an amicus brief supporting Belmont Abbey and Wheaton.
Belmont Abbey College was the first to sue the Obama administration over the HHS mandate last year. Following a setback in which a judge, an Obama appointee, dismissed the College’s case because the Obama administration had not yet amended regulations to better reflect religious objections as it has promised to do, Belmont Abbey College went back to court Friday.
Not only did the court reinstate the case, but it also ordered the Obama administration to report back every 60 days—starting in mid-February—until the Administration makes good on its promise to issue a new rule that protects the Colleges’ religious freedom. The new rule must be issued by March 31, 2013.
The Obama administration had created a so-called “safe harbor” to delay enforcement against non-profit religious organizations while the government “considered” some future “accommodation,” leading two lower courts to dismiss Belmont Abbey and Wheaton College’s lawsuits as premature. Some suspected this was a delay tactic to push any decisions on this volatile issue until after the election.
To read the entire story, click here.
Reminds me of a line in a song that the govt keeps singing, “Making money underneath the apple tree”, while the Church is trying to transform the world underneath the apple tree.
Does this mean that every Catholic insitution—school, hospital, organization,—-can opt out of Obamacare?
good question.
Kudos to Wheaton College (Christian) and Belmont Abbey (Catholic) in their legal challenges to the indefensible HHS/Obama health care mandate policy (and don’t you wish you would have made this unconstitutional Brown-shirt effort to control religious expression in America, a central part of your campaign, Gov. Romney?). Who knows what an increasingly corrupt American judicial system will do to this issue (and how can anyone trust the intellectual integrity of Chief Justice Roberts?)? But, it is good that you both are taking up the fight for us all. Yes, some bishops have sued, too, to their credit (but many have not, far too many). As is widely observed, but universally ignored (and often attributed to a number of writers, including Edmund Burke): “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Here, only a few are actively fighting an evil that cannot win, if all good men shout their objections.
“You can fool some of the people some of the time, all of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time” Abraham Lincoln. Looks like this comment is truly true. I think this judge was enlightened by the Holy Spirit in his ruling. Let us all pray that he continues to stand his judicial ground.
A bit much holiday grog, LL? You posted: can fool all … all of the time, … can’t fool all all of the time. Sounds like novus ordo think. I wonder if there is reparative therapy for novus ordo victims.
oh, for rudolph’s sake, here we go with the “novus ordo” stuff again.
i just got home from mass and it was gorgeous. novus, and ordo, and in english, and still gorgeous.
perhaps it’s because JESUS is the one who carries out the sacraments, not us…
merry CHRISTMAS! :)
I think you mean ‘You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can`t fool all of the people all of the time.’
THIS IS STARTING TO SHOW REAL OBAMA COLOR! I”M DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS FOR A FEW THOUSAND BABIES!
Amen! Woody.
Saaaaaaaaayyyyyy Whuuuuuuuuhhhhhhtttttt??