The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals allows suit by religious school to continue but says it will hold the government to its deadlines for revising rules for religiously affiliated employers.
McClatchy: Religious Challenge To Health Care Law Can Continue
North Carolina's Belmont Abbey College can keep on challenging the Obama administration's signature health care law under an appellate court ruling that leaves the challenge on hold. In a decision closely watched by many other religious schools and institutions, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled that the legal challenge by Belmont Abbey and Illinois' Wheaton College may remain "in abeyance" while the administration revises rules for a contraception coverage mandate. Pointedly, the court also set firm deadlines for administration officials to make the revisions protecting those with religious objections. The ruling is a compromise victory for the schools and a definite defeat for the administration, which wanted the religious liberty lawsuit dismissed outright (Doyle, 12/19).