The high court unanimously decided on Monday to send the case brought by Little Sisters and 36 other religious non-profits (Zubik v. Burwell) against the Department of Health and Human Services Affordable Care Act mandate back to appeals courts, and also vacated an appeals court judgement that ruled that the Little Sisters had to allow the federal government to provide its employees birth control and abortifacients through the organization’s health plan.
As the Supreme Court called on the courts and administration to “arrive at an approach going forward that accommodates petitioners’ religious exercise,” Little Sisters of the Poor’s U.S. director of communications Sister Constance Veit told The Christian Post Tuesday that the court’s decision affirms the fact that God has always been there to protect the sisters, no matter what sociopolitical conditions faced them.
“Basically, the Supreme Court has recognized what we have always been insisting, which is that the government could be achieving their goals relative to these services without involving us,” Veit explained. “The Supreme Court basically told the federal government that they need to find a way to resolve this by accommodating our religious beliefs and our concerns.”
“This wasn’t a shock,” Veit said of the court’s decision. “All along, we have made the intentional choice to put our trust in God because we have been around for 175 years, all over the world in a lot of precarious situations, through social and political upheaval, and God has always protected our sisters. This is just an affirmation of that. We know that he is going to work this out for us.”
Although no court dates have yet been set, the Little Sisters are confident moving forward and believe that the end of their legal battle is near.
“We are feeling very encouraged and very hopeful because we have realized that this is not the end of the game but it is much closer to the end,” Veit stated. “We have been optimistic and hopeful all along, just because we trust that God is going to take care of this for us and we also have great trust and admiration in our legal team at Becket Fund. Yesterday, for me, was a confirmation that ‘Okay, God really is protecting us in all of this.'”
Veit explained that the reason for her confidence is the fact that the Obama administration even admitted in its supplemental brief submitted to the Supreme Court in April by Solicitor General Donald Verrilli that the administration could have accomplished its contraceptive goals without infringing on the nuns’ religious beliefs. … Read more