On November 20, 2013, Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic liberal arts college, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia under the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ("RFRA"), and the Administrative Procedures Act ("APA"), against the U.S ...
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On November 20, 2013, Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic liberal arts college, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia under the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ("RFRA"), and the Administrative Procedures Act ("APA"), against the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury. The plaintiff, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asked the court for both declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging that federal rules adopted pursuant to the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) violated its religious freedom by requiring it to provide coverage for contraception through its group health insurance plan. Claiming that providing coverage for contraception would both contravene its Catholic faith and compel speech contrary to its beliefs, the plaintiff sought an exemption from the ACA's contraception mandate for itself and other institutions with similar religious objections.
The plaintiff's complaint was substantially similar to one it had filed in 2011,
Belmont Abbey College v. Sebelius [II], which was dismissed on August 13, 2013 because the contraception mandate had not yet harmed the plaintiffs.
On January 29, 2014, the defendants filed an unopposed motion to stay this case pending the Supreme Court's resolution of
Priests for Life v. Sebelius (later consolidated as
Zubik v. Sebelius [II] , and heard by the Supreme Court in 2016). On November 3, 2014, the plaintiffs, for unspecified reasons, filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice.
Kate Craddock - 08/07/2016
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