District Court Dismisses Archbishop's Contraception Challenge

Judge Amy Berman Jackson (D.D.C.) on Friday dismissed the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington's challenge to the HHS regs pursuant to the Affordable Care Act that required insurers to provide coverage for preventive care, including contraception, for women.  The ruling comes on the heels of the D.C. Circuit's ruling just last month that a similar challenge was not ripe.

Judge Jackson cited the D.C. Circuit ruling, Wheaton College v. Sebelius, and ruled that the Archbishop's challenge was similarly not ripe.  (Recall that the D.C. Circuit reasoned that HHS committed to changing its regs, so that the contraception requirement wouldn't cover the religious employer in that case.)  The D.C. Circuit wrote, "We take the government at its word and will hold it to it."  So too Judge Jackson.

Unlike the D.C. Circuit, however, Judge Jackson did not hold the case in abeyance.  Instead, she outright dismissed it, writing that the Archbishop could bring a new case if and when the government enforced a contraception mandate against it.

SDS