A federal judge has moved to block the enforcement of a section of Obamacare that was stated to conflict with Christian and religious values.
Senior Judge John L. Kane of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado granted a preliminary injunction against the health care mandate on Friday, specifically the requirement that insurance companies cover sterilizations, contraception and the morning after pill.
Kane opined that “the government’s arguments are countered, and indeed outweighed, by the public interest in the free exercise of religion.”
The lawsuit was filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) on behalf of a family-owned business called Hercules Industries.
“Every American, including family business owners, should be free to live and do business according to their faith. For the time being, Hercules Industries will be able to do just that,” rejoiced ADF legal counsel Matt Bowman following the order.
Hercules Industries was facing offering abortifacient coverage starting on September 1st, when its insurance plan renewed. The urgent need to challenge the requirement before the start date was one of the reasons that ADF filed for the emergency injunction. The mandate against the company is now on hold until its constitutionality is fully decided in court.
“The cost of freedom for this family could be millions of dollars per year in fines that will cripple their business if the Obama administration ultimately has its way,” Bowman lamented. “This lawsuit seeks to ensure that Washington bureaucrats cannot force families to abandon their faith just to earn a living. Americans don’t want politicians and bureaucrats deciding what faith is, who the faithful are, and where and how that faith may be lived out.”
The case, called Newland v. Sebelius, could drag out for the next several months while both sides argue before the court.
Approximately 20 lawsuits are currently pending against Obamacare nationwide, with six of them coming from Christian and religious institutions.
As previously reported, Louisiana College of Pineville, Louisiana and Geneva College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are firmly refusing to comply with the contraception mandate no matter what the outcome of their legal challenge.
“If the government continues to say that we have to do this, we will not do it,” Louisiana College president Joe Aguillard told Fox News. “There’s going to be, in my opinion, a constitutional crisis. We’re not going to do it.”
“I guess President Obama will have to come down to Louisiana College with whatever means they want to stop us,” he added. “They can’t imprison all of us. They can’t fight all of us. We are greater than the Department of Justice.”
The publication Human Events reported of Geneva College, “As the colonists, in what King George called ‘the Presbyterian Revolt,’ responded to their earthly king with chants of ‘No king but King Jesus,’ so too the president of this Presbyterian college, Ken Smith of Geneva, has said, “At Geneva College, we have only one Lord, and he does not live in Washington, D.C.”
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