The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chicago, has granted a temporary halt to enforcement of the portion of the Affordable Care Act called the birth control mandate to a construction firm called Korte & Luitjohan Contractors. This particular case is expected to continue in the 7th Circuit.
In October of 2012, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a company called Korte & Luitjohan Contractors, Inc., in regards to the birth control mandate.
In short, the birth control mandate requires all health plans (including employer sponsored health plans), to cover the cost of birth control without charging the consumer. It requires coverage of all forms of birth control that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Churches are exempt from this mandate. Religious businesses that are for-profit, however, are not exempt.
Korte & Luitjohan Contractors is a construction company that is owned by Cyril and Jane Korte. It is a family owned business. The Kortes are Catholic. The company has about 90 full time employees, 70 of which belong to unions, and about 20 that are non-union. The union employees have their own health plans.
According to the emergency injunction motion for that case, the Kortes established ethical guidelines for their company. It states:
..they will not arrange for, pay for, provide, facilitate, or otherwise support employee health coverage for contraceptives, sterilization, abortion, abortion-inducing drugs, or related education and counseling except in limited circumstances.
They wanted the court to stop the birth control mandate from being enforced so the Kortes could avoid having to pay the fines that would be imposed upon business owners who choose not to comply with the birth control mandate. On December 14, 2012, the court denied that motion.
The court noted that by “abortion”, the Kortes were referring to “the morning after pill”, “Plan B”, and “Ella”. The Food and Drug Administration has classified those medications as contraception. It also noted that while people may have religious beliefs, business do not. The request for injunction was denied because:
The Supreme Court, however, has cautioned that “[i]ssuing a preliminary injunction based only on the possibility of irreparable harm is inconsistent with [the] characterization of injunctive relief as an extraordinary remedy that may only be awarded upon a clear showing that the plaintiff is entitled to such relief.”
On December 17, 2012, the ACLJ filed a notice of appeal with the trial court from the denial of their motion for injunction. On December 18, 2012, the case was transferred to a federal Court of Appeals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, in Chicago. This time, the temporary injunction was granted.
Judges Joel Flaum and Diana Sykes held the majority opinion. Judge Ilana Rovner dissented. The results of this case mean that the case can continue on in the 7th Circuit.
Image by walknboston on Flickr