On June 24, 2013, a for-profit company filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of West Virginia under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and the First Amendment against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The plaintiff, represented by the public interest firm Liberty Institute, asked the court for an exception to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandate requiring employers to provide health insurance coverage of contraception. Specifically, the plaintiff claimed that providing insurance coverage of contraception would violate the religious beliefs of the corporation's owners. On July 26, 2013 the plaintiff filed an amended complaint but did not make and substantive changes.

On August 23, 2013 the defendants filed a motion to dismiss to case on the grounds that the plaintiff's free exercise of religion is not substantially burdened by the ACA mandate. On December 10, 2014 U.S. Circuit Court (Judge Thomas E. Johnston) stayed the case until the Supreme Court rules in Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius, a similar case before the Western District of Oklahoma.

The case is ongoing as of February 3, 2014.

Mallory Jones - 10/16/2013
- 02/03/2014


compress summary