On March 22, 2013, a for-profit company filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan 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 in part by the public interest firm Thomas More Law Center, 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 deeply held religious beliefs of the corporation's owners.

On May 7, 2013, the plaintiff filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to prevent the defendant from enforcing the contraception mandate against them and preliminary injunction. On July 11, 2013, United States District Court (Judge Paul D. Borman) denied plaintiff's motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. The same day, the plaintiff filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit (No. 13-1944). On July 17, 2013, the defendant filed a motion for injunctive relief pending the appeal. The District Court (Judge Paul D. Borman) granted that motion on July 31, 2013.

On July 9, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit (Judges Alice Batchelder, Danny Boggs, and Eric Clay) overturned the denial of plaintiff's request for a preliminary injunction and granted the requested preliminary injunction based on defendant's withdrawal of opposition to the preliminary injunction.

As of February 2, 2015, the case is still ongoing.

Mallory Jones - 03/31/2014
Edward Mroczkowski - 02/02/2015


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