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 Last year two federal judges - one in Philadelphia and one in
Oakland, California - had blocked the government from enforcing a
new guideline allowing businesses or nonprofits to obtain exemptions
from the contraception policy on moral or religious grounds. The
Justice Department appealed both rulings.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said on Thursday the
government likely violated administrative laws in promulgating the
new rules. The appeals court said, however, the injunction issued in
California should not apply nationwide, but only within the five
states that sued over the policy.
California's attorney general filed the case, along with AGs in
Delaware, Virginia, Maryland and New York.
Despite the 9th Circuit ruling, a nationwide injunction issued by
the Philadelphia judge is still in effect while that case is under
appeal at the 3rd Circuit, a spokesman for Pennsylvania's attorney
general said on Thursday.
U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Kelly Laco said single judges
should not be able to issue nationwide injunctions, and called the
9th Circuit ruling "a victory for restoring the constitutional order
of the federal government and ending abuses of judicial power."
Meanwhile, California Attorney General Xavier Bacerra in a statement
said the decision "is an important step to protect a woman’s right
to access cost-free birth control."
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One 9th Circuit judge on the three-judge panel, an appointee of
Republican President George H.W. Bush, said he would have revoked
the California injunction altogether.
The cases are among several that Democratic state attorneys general
filed after the Republican Trump administration revealed the new
rules which targeted the contraceptive mandate implemented as part
of 2010's Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.
The rules would let businesses or nonprofits lodge religious or
moral objections to obtain an exemption from the law's mandate that
employers provide contraceptive coverage in health insurance with no
co-payment.
Conservative Christian activists and congressional Republicans
praised the move, while reproductive rights advocates and Democrats
criticized it.
A new but similar set of federal rules around birth control coverage
are set to take effect next month, which are also the subject of
separate court challenges.
(Reporting by Dan Levine; editing by Leslie Adler and Richard Chang)
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