He had promised relief from mandate during presidential campaign
WASHINGTON (CNA)
With President Donald Trump’s administration signaling it is not dropping the HHS mandate cases against religious non-profits, plaintiffs are concerned the action does not reflect promises made during the presidential campaign.
“The government has a chance to do the right thing here. It got it wrong for five years in these cases,” said Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents many non-profits in HHS mandate cases.
“And they can do the right thing by dropping their appeals that are in favor of the mandate, and admitting they were wrong on the issue of the contraceptive mandate, as applied to religious non-profits,” Rassbach said.
During his presidential campaign, Trump had promised Catholics relief from the HHS mandate, which requires employers to offer health insurance plans covering contraception, sterilization and some early abortion drugs. In a letter to the Catholic Leadership Conference last October, he pointed to his opponent Hillary Clinton’s support for the mandate, and said “that is a hostility to religious liberty you will never see in a Trump Administration.”
After Trump’s election, the plaintiffs challenging the mandate widely expected the new administration would drop the government’s appeal of the lawsuits, which federal circuit courts may re-examine in the coming months.
Instead of dropping the cases, however, the administration indicated it intends to take the next step in the litigation process. The Washington Post reported the Justice Department had asked a federal appeals court for 60 extra days to negotiate an agreement with East Texas Baptist University and several other plaintiffs challenging the mandate. The Supreme Court last year had instructed the Obama administration to negotiate with the plaintiffs as the next step in the litigation process.
The Becket Fund said the same lawyers that litigated the cases on behalf of the Obama administration are still on the mandate cases now under the Trump administration.
The HHS mandate was formed under the Affordable Care Act, which required preventive coverage in employer health plans. Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services interpreted this to include coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations, and drugs that can cause abortions.