Contraception coverage mandate could drive health law back to Supreme Court

A number of challenges to the birth control coverage requirement are making their way through the lower courts. Meanwhile, a U.S. district judge issued a ruling that the property mangement firm owned by the founder of Domino's Pizza will not have to immediately comply with this health law provision.

NewsHour: Health Reform May Be Headed Back To Supreme Court In 2013
The nation's highest court may have upheld a central pillar of the law last summer -- the so-called "individual mandate" that most Americans either purchase health insurance or pay a fine -- but that doesn't mean the rest of the ACA is free from debate. Questions are slowly percolating through the lower courts -- with some possibly headed toward the Supreme Court -- about contraception coverage, the Senate's ability to "originate" a tax and the legality of the online insurance marketplaces known as exchanges. For an overview of where all these new challenges stand, we turn once again to Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal (Kane, 1/1).

The Associated Press: Judge Halts Contraceptive Mandate For Mich. Firm
A federal judge has ruled a property management company owned by the founder of Domino's Pizza doesn't have to immediately implement mandatory contraception coverage in the health care law. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff ruled Sunday in favor of Tom Monaghan and his Domino's Farms Corp., near Ann Arbor. Monaghan, a devout Roman Catholic, says contraception isn't health care but a "gravely immoral" practice (12/31).

The Hill's Healthwatch: Federal Judge Halts Obama's Birth Control Policy For Domino's Pizza Founder
Federal District Court Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff issued the decision Sunday, less than two days before the policy would have taken effect and exposed Monaghan to fines for non-compliance. "Plaintiff has shown that abiding by the mandate will substantially burden his exercise of religion," Zatkoff wrote (Viebeck, 12/31).