A lawyer for an order of nuns whose ministry is to take care of the poor and elderly has chided the most powerful government on earth for apparently being unable to operate without help from his clients.
“A year after losing at the Supreme Court, the government’s aggressive pursuit of the Little Sisters of the Poor continues,” said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and lead attorney for the case.
“Untold millions of people have managed to get contraceptives without the involvement of nuns. The idea that the most powerful government in the world cannot come up with a way to distribute these products without forcing the Little Sisters to participate is ridiculous,” he said.
His comments came as the justices on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard yet another argument in the dispute. The nuns have said they simply won’t violate their faith and cannot comply with government mandates to provide or facilitate the provision of contraceptives to employees, including abortion-causing drugs.
Sister Loraine Marie Maguire of the Little Sisters of the Poor said in a statement her group offers the “neediest elderly of every race and religion a home where they will be welcomed as Christ, cared for as family and accompanied with dignity until God calls them to Himself.”
“We have done this for over 175 years because of our faith in God and our vocation as Little Sisters of the Poor,” she said.
“But now the government demands we choose between our care for the elderly poor and our faith. We cannot do that and we should not have to.”
She said the choice “violates our nation’s historic commitment to ensure that people from diverse faiths can freely follow God’s calling in their lives.”
“But the government forces us to either violate our conscience or take millions of dollars that we raise by begging for the care of the elderly poor and instead pay fines to the IRS,” she said.
“We are not seeking special privileges,” she said. “The government exempts huge corporations, small businesses, and other religious ministries from what they are imposing on us – we are simply asking to carry on our mission to serve the elderly poor as we have always done for 175 years.
“We are thankful that the court has heard our case and for the work of the Becket Fund, and we prayerfully await the judges’ decision.”
The case, Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell, is one of dozens filed against the Obama administration by religious schools, organizations and others over the government’s decision to force them to violate their faith or pay massive IRS penalties.
Hear their comments:
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The plaintiffs in the many lawsuits point out the Obama administration has created exemptions for a multitude of other groups but not them.
WND reported weeks ago when a legal brief filed in the case said it looked like the Obama administration was going out of its way to force the Catholic sisters to provide birth control in violation of their faith.
“The government’s latest interim rules – the seventh set of revisions to the mandate in 36 months – change nothing of substance in this appeal,” explains a court filing in the dispute.
”The government easily could have eliminated the need for this appeal,” contended the brief filed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
“It could have exempted the Little Sisters as ‘religious employers’ – just as it would if the Little Sisters’ homes were operated by Catholic bishops,” the brief argued. “It could have exempted church plans. It could have adopted the ‘most straightforward’ path of just providing contraceptives itself … such as through Title X or tax incentives.
“Most simply, it could just allow employees of religious objectors to purchase subsidized coverage on the government’s own exchanges,” the brief states.
“But instead of these obvious and more direct approaches, the government continues to insist that the only way the United States could possibly distribute contraceptives is with the forced participation of the Little Sisters. … Thus the government seeks to coerce the Little Sisters to participate by giving information about its plan and plan administrators.”
Legal Counsel Daniel Blomberg told WND at the time that because of their lifelong commitment to adhere to biblical teachings, “the Little Sisters can’t provide the drug themselves.”
“They can’t sign a form. They can’t do anything that allows their plan … to be hijacked to deliver the drugs.”
The brief argues the “interim final rules … merely offer the Little Sisters another way to violate their religion.”
“If a Jewish prisoner objects to a steady diet of ham sandwiches on the grounds that he cannot eat pork products, it is no answer for the government to ‘augment’ the menu by adding the ‘alternatives’ of eating pork chops or bacon. Giving the prison a second (or third or fourth) way to do what his religion forbids does not change his case at all. … The same is true here. One way or another, the government continues to insist that the Little Sisters must comply … and facilitate the distribution of contraceptives.”
Right now, the Supreme Court is preventing the government from assessing millions of dollars in fines against the nuns, and the argument is over the next steps in the case.
A district court judge had refused to issue a preliminary injunction against the government.
The brief explains the mandate continues to violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, because it “imposes a substantial burden on the Little Sisters’ undisputed religious exercise and is not the least restrictive means of serving a compelling government interests.”
The nuns’ beliefs include respect for life.
While the U.S. Supreme Court has said the Little Sisters must do nothing more than notify the government of their religious objection, the new Obama administration regulations require much more, including a procedure for them to facilitate the delivery of the objectionable drugs, the complaint explains.
The question presented in the Little Sisters case was whether any law, such as a nationwide health-care management system imposed by the government, can be so important that Washington can order people to violate their religious faith in contradiction to the freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment.
“And regardless of what the trial court and the government think the Little Sisters should believe, the undisputed fact is that they do believe their religion forbids them from signing EBSA Form 700. It was not for the district court to disagree with the line drawn by the Little Sisters,” the nuns’ attorneys have argued in court.
