The federal government is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide
whether Hobby Lobby and a Christian bookstore chain have to provide a
wide range of birth control options for workers as part of the federal
health care law.
The 251-page appeal was filed Thursday.
The
Oklahoma businesses have operated under a court order that allows them
to avoid fines while they challenge a portion of the new law requiring
them to provide the coverage.
Company attorneys object to offering such plans based on religious grounds.
U.S.
District Judge Joe Heaton in July granted the Hobby Lobby craft store
chain and Mardel Christian bookstore, its sister company, a temporary
exemption from a requirement that it provide insurance coverage for
morning-after pills, similar emergency birth control methods and
intrauterine devices.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Government
lawyers intend to fight a court order that lets Hobby Lobby and the
Mardel Christian bookstore chain avoid fines while they challenge a
portion of the new federal health care law requiring them to provide a
wide range of birth control options for its workers.
U.S.
District Judge Joe Heaton in July granted the Hobby Lobby craft store
chain and Mardel, its sister company, a temporary exemption from a
requirement that it provide insurance coverage for morning-after pills,
similar emergency birth control methods and intrauterine devices.
Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services filed a
notice in federal court this week saying it would appeal. Heaton had
given the government an Oct. 1 deadline.
Lawyers for
the companies' owners, the Green family, say following all provisions
of the new federal health care law would either violate their religious
beliefs or cost them millions of dollars in fines. The Green family
believes life begins at conception; emergency birth control methods and
the IUD prevent fertilized eggs from implantation. The company's
insurance plans do offer 16 other forms of birth control mentioned in
the federal health care act.
Heaton last November
rejected companies' request to block the birth-control mandate. He
reconsidered his decision after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled that the companies were likely to prevail in the case. Heaton
ruled in June that the company would not be subject to fines of up to
$1.3 million a day for not offering the birth control methods.
Kyle
Duncan, Hobby Lobby's lead attorney, has argued that requiring the
company to comply with the mandate would be a burden to religious
exercise. A DHS lawyer, Michelle Bennett, said an injunction could
create a burden for Hobby Lobby's 13,000 employees and members of their
families who would be denied coverage for the emergency contraceptives.
When
he handed down his ruling in July, Heaton said he was surprised 10th
Circuit seemed to extend a person's constitutional religious exercise
rights to a business but said the injunction should be granted in the
public interest so courts could resolve "substantial unanswered
questions."
The government filed its notice Tuesday.