BREAKING Little Sisters of the Poor Again Appeal in Court for Protection from the Contraceptive Ruling

WASHINGTON –  Becket Law - The Little Sisters of the Poor have again asked a federal appeals court late Friday to block a nationwide ruling that rejected their protection from the federal government’s contraceptive mandate. Represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Clement Murphy, the Little Sisters have spent more than a decade in court fighting to defend their ministry from a federal mandate forcing them to either provide contraceptives in their healthcare plan or pay tens of millions of dollars in fines. (Video from 5 years ago about the Little Sisters)

They have already prevailed twice at the Supreme Court, including a 2020 ruling that upheld the federal conscience rule shielding them from the mandate. But Pennsylvania and New Jersey have fought in court to strip the Little Sisters of that protection. Earlier this year, a federal district court sided with the states, forcing the Little Sisters back to federal appeals court yet again.

Fourteen years ago, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a federal mandate as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This mandate requires employers to provide contraceptives like the week-after pill in their health insurance plans, including some that can cause abortion. The original mandate exempted plans covering tens of millions of people for administrative convenience, but did not provide a religious exemption for groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Catholic nuns who have served the elderly poor for nearly 200 years. After the Little Sisters won protection against the federal government at the Supreme Court in 2016 and in a new federal rule in 2017, Pennsylvania and New Jersey sued to take away that protection.

“The fourteen-year legal crusade against the Little Sisters has been needless, grotesque, and un-American,” said Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and lead attorney for the Little Sisters. “The States have no business trying to take away the Little Sisters’ federal civil rights. The Third Circuit should toss the States’ lawsuit into the dustbin of history and uphold the protection the Little Sisters already won at the Supreme Court…twice.”

In response to the Supreme Court’s 2016 decision protecting the Little Sisters, the federal government issued a rule in 2017 that exempted groups like the Little Sisters from the mandate. However, more than a dozen state governments in multiple cases immediately sued over the rule, attempting to strong-arm the Little Sisters into either providing contraceptives or paying tens of millions in fines. The Little Sisters once again took their case up to the Supreme Court, and in 2020 secured another victory in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania. But Pennsylvania and New Jersey have refused to drop their efforts to take away the Little Sisters’ protection in the lower courts.

“For nearly 200 years, our order has welcomed the elderly poor and dying into our homes as we would welcome Christ Himself,” said Mother Loraine Marie Maguire of the Little Sisters of the Poor. “It is painful that we have spent more than a decade defending that mission in court. We simply want to continue our work without being forced to violate our faith, and we pray Pennsylvania and New Jersey will end this needless harassment.”

Oral argument in the case is expected in early 2026.

Source: https://becketfund.org/media/little-sisters-of-the-poor-appeal-decision/