Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has refused to block enforcement of that part of the HHS mandate which requires employers to provide insurance coverage for the morning-after pill.
In September, Hobby Lobby Stores, a private chain of over 500 arts-and-crafts stores with 13,600 employees in 41 states, and a sister company (Mardel, Inc.) filed suit against the HHS mandate. The chain is owned by an evangelical Protestant family whose members have no objection to the contraception provision of the HHS mandate.
"However, the Green family's religious convictions prohibit them from providing or paying for the abortion-inducing drugs, the 'morning-after' and 'week-after' pills, which would violate their most deeply held religious belief that life begins at conception," stated the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing Hobby Lobby Stores.
On December 20, a federal court denied Hobby Lobby's request to block enforcement of the mandate, and six days later, Justice Sotomayor denied Hobby Lobby's petition to block enforcement.
Beginning January 1, Hobby Lobby will face a fine of $1.3 million per day if it refuses to offer the insurance coverage. Justice Sotomayor ruled that the company may continue to challenge the constitutionality of the mandate in lower courts.
Source: CWN
