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U.S. NEWS A5
Thursday 24 March 2016
Justices divided over new challenge to health care law
MARK SHERMAN gious Freedom Restoration Nuns and their supporters rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 23,
Associated Press Act. 2016, as the court hears arguments to allow birth control in healthcare plans in the Zubik vs. Bur-
WASHINGTON (AP) — In Catholic and Protestant well case.
a new challenge to Presi- colleges, charities and ad-
dent Barack Obama’s vocacy groups are invok- Associated Press
health care law, the Su- ing the same law in asking
preme Court appeared that the government find a
deeply and evenly divided way that does not involve
Wednesday over the ar- them or their insurers if it
rangement devised by wishes to provide birth con-
the administration to spare trol to women covered by
faith-based groups from their health plans.
having to pay for birth con- Among the challengers are
trol for women covered un- Bishop David Zubik, head
der their health plans. of the Catholic Diocese in
Ninety minutes of crisp ar- Pittsburgh; the Little Sisters
guments and frequent in- of the Poor, nuns who run
terruptions by the justices more than two dozen nurs-
indicated that the court ing homes for impoverished
seemed headed for a 4-4 seniors; evangelical and
tie that would leave the is- Catholic colleges in Okla-
sue unresolved nationally. homa, Pennsylvania, Texas
Or the court could hold a and Washington, D.C., and
new round of arguments the anti-abortion advoca-
once a ninth justice is con- cy group Priests for Life.
firmed to take the place of
Justice Antonin Scalia, who Chief Justice John Rob-
died last month. erts, who has twice written
The case could factor into opinions upholding the law
the fight over Obama’s Su- against broad challenges,
preme Court nomination and Justice Samuel Alito
of Judge Merrick Garland. repeatedly challenged So-
And in its volatile mix of reli- licitor General Donald Ver-
gious liberty and birth con- rilli Jr. on his argument that
trol, it also could play a role the policy strikes a balance
in the presidential cam- between religious freedom
paign. and access to birth control.
If the justices are as firmly The groups have “used the
split between liberals and phrase ‘hijacking,’ and it
conservatives as they sig- seems to me that that’s
naled Wednesday, the an accurate description
court could say so as early of what the government
as next week, or wait until wants to do,” Roberts said.
the end of June. Alito, who would have
Wednesday was the sixth struck down the entire
anniversary of President law, suggested women af-
Barack Obama’s health fected in this case could
care overhaul; the case in get contraceptive cover-
front of the justices is the age on the health care ex-
law’s fourth Supreme Court changes set up by the law.
appearance in five years. When Verrilli objected, Ali-
Nationwide, eight ap- to said, “Is it because these
peals courts, including four exchanges are so unwork-
with decisions being chal- able, even with the help of
lenged in the current case, a navigator?”
have sided with the ad- Justice Anthony Kennedy,
ministration, and one has whose vote could give the
ruled for the groups. A 4-4 administration a majority,
outcome would leave dif- also sounded sympathetic
ferent rules in place in dif- to the faith-based groups
ferent parts of the country. when he said that “reli-
In 2014, the justices divided gious organization plans
5-4 with Scalia in the major- here are, in effect, subsidiz-
ity to allow some “closely ing the conduct that they
held” businesses with reli- deemed immoral.”
gious objections to refuse Only Justice Clarence
to pay for contraceptives Thomas asked no ques-
for women. That case in- tions, but he has repeat-
volved the Hobby Lobby edly sided with the health
chain of craft stores and law’s challengers.
other companies that said The four liberal justices
their rights were being vio- seemed just as firmly in the
lated under the 1993 Reli- administration’s corner.
