Supreme Court to Determine If a Christian Organization Must Provide Contraception

The U.S. Supreme Court held its first religious liberty case on Wednesday to determine if a Christian organization must provide contraception under the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate.

The case, entitled Little Sisters of the Poor v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, involves the Little Sisters of the Poor, an international religious organization that has been active since 1839.

“They are an order of Catholic nuns who serve the elderly poor and dying – truly the most vulnerable among us, especially in the midst of this pandemic,” said senior counsel Diana Verm from the Becket religious rights legal group which is helping to defend them.

The Catholic News Agency reports that the Little Sisters, who have been in a seven-year-long legal battle over the contraceptive mandate, were victorious over the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 and were issued a religious exemption from the mandate by the Trump administration in 2017.

The exemption, however, was challenged in court by State attorneys general for Pennsylvania and California.

Last July, The Little Sisters lost their cases against Pennsylvania at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and last October against California at the Ninth Circuit Court.

As such, the group appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed in January to hear their case.

The May 6 case was initially scheduled for April 29, but it was postponed by the court…