JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Catholic Conference has expressed dismay that a federal judge has struck down a state law passed last year that protects employer’s conscience rights when providing health insurance.
“The order is a significant overreach and goes beyond even what the party suing asked for,” Tyler McClay, communications director for the Missouri Catholic Conference, told EWTN News March 19.
On March 14, U.S. district Judge Audrey Fleissig overturned a state law which requires insurance companies to inform health-care consumers whether a policy includes coverage for abortions or contraceptives, and it allows those with an objection on moral grounds to have insurers exclude these items from employees’ health plans.
The law helps health-insurance consumers make informed decisions and protects the consciences and religious liberty of employers.
The decision to strike down the law was made because it conflicts with the federal Affordable Care Act, which the judge said pre-empts state laws. She said the legislation put insurance providers in an impossible position of complying with either federal or state law.
Fleissig’s order “attacks the conscience rights and religious liberty of all Missouri citizens,” said a statement by the Missouri Catholic Conference.
“No one should be forced to pay for contraceptives, abortion drugs or sterilization procedures in their health plans.”
The conference noted that her decision “effectively amended Missouri law ... requiring churches and houses of worship to provide the offending coverage to their employees,” going beyond the exemption offered by the Obama administration itself.
The statement said that numerous federal judges, including the Eighth Circuit Appeals Court, which hears appeals from the Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, “have granted injunctive relief to several Missouri for-profit employers that have sued, claiming that the HHS contraceptive mandate violates their religious liberty.”
Fleissig’s decision noted these cases, but claimed they are “irrelevant” to her decision.
The law in question was adopted in September, after the state Legislature overrode its veto by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon. Both the Missouri Senate and House gave bipartisan support for the law.
When it was adopted, the Missouri Catholic Conference anticipated a legal battle over it and told EWTN News that, while the law “may conflict with the HHS mandate ... it conforms to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
In its statement, the conference urged the state attorney general, Chris Koster, to “appeal this overreaching decision and stand up for the religious liberties of all Missouri citizens.”
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Don’t attack the judge for this - her ruling is clearly correct. It is a totally settled matter that federal law overrules any state law that conflicts with it. And even the Missouri Catholic Conference acknowledged that the state law “may conflict with the HHS mandate.”
The thing that must be challenged is the HHS mandate itself (and I hope the challenge is successful). This ruling says nothing about whether the HHS mandate is itself valid. Also, this ruling does not change the HHS mandate in any way, and it certainly does not “go beyond the exemption offered by the Obama administration itself.”
“Don’t attack the judge for this - her ruling is clearly correct. It is a totally settled matter that federal law overrules any state law that conflicts with it.”
Well, it’s hardly clear or settled. For a federal law to preempt state law it has to be shown that Congress had the intention of “occupying the field” with the legislation. Here it is not clear that Obamacare’s enabling legislation was intended preempt state government’s powers to regulate insurance companies.
The judge did what judge’s do—she picked a position in her ruling. She can certainly be criticized for that decision because—as there is a legal presumption against preemption—she did not go with the “default” position of the law.
Agreed. The judicial decision is completely correct. The states cannot nullify federal law.
The Constitutionality of the HHS Mandate will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court cases have gone both ways, but none of the really matter until SCOTUS hears the case.
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