Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito
stayed a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit which upheld the Obama administration's rules expanding contraceptive coverage in health insurance. The challenge before the Third Circuit was brought by a group of religious non-profits in Pennsylvania, who argued that complying with the new rules the administration had established for them—providing "a self-certification form opting out of the coverage requirement" to a third party—was still objectionable because "signing such a form or letter facilitates moral evil. This is true whether or not applicants pay for the objectionable coverage."
This will undoubtedly result in yet another Supreme Court challenge that will expand the Hobby Lobby decision to make sure that there's no way employees of either private, secular companies who claim a religious exemption or religious non-profits can get contraceptives—they will strike down whatever accommodation the administration tries to create. That was evident, as Ian Millhiser writes, when just four days after the Hobby Lobby decision—in which Alito wrote that this accommodation would protect employers and employees—the court said Wheaton College could refuse to sign the form. Staying this ruling is the next step.
Alito's order is a warning that this issue will not remain in the lower courts forever. Indeed, the Third Circuit case provides the Supreme Court with a vehicle that it could use as soon as next fall to consider whether the send-the-letter or the fill-out-the-form options will survive contact with the justices, or whether federal law does, indeed, give religious employers "the right to enlist the government to effectuate . . . a religious veto against legally required conduct of third parties."
There's very little doubt now as to how the men of the Roberts Five will vote next time around.