In a ruling last week, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Cleland temporarily blocked the government from forcing the owner of Weingartz Supply Company, which sells outdoor power equipment, to include contraception in its health coverage of employees.
The Catholic-owned family business in Michigan does not have to comply with the provision of the new U.S. healthcare law that requires private employers to provide employees with health insurance that covers birth control. The ruling only affects the company's Catholic owner, Daniel Weingartz, and his nearly 200 employees. However, it opens the door for other firms to seek relief on religious grounds.
Lawyers for the Obama Administration argued that granting exceptions for small business owners would interfere with the government's ability to implement the law that serves the government's interests in promoting public health and gender equality. However, Judge Cleland suggested in his decision, that “the harm in delaying the implementation of a statute that may later be deemed constitutional must yield to the risk presented here of substantially infringing the sincere exercise of religious beliefs.”
This victory is a good sign that the more than 20 lawsuits that have been filed against the unfair birth control mandate by organizations including the University of Notre Dame, Catholic University of America and the Archdiocese of New York. We applaud Judge Cleland’s common sense decision and hope that more jurists will him in recognizing and respecting the religious liberty of individuals and organizations.
