Does Equal Protection Require Accommodation of Moral Conviction to Same Degree as Religious Belief?

In Anti-abortion Group Wins Case Against Obama, USA Today reports that United States District Court Judge Richard Leon of the District of Columbia has ruled that the “anti-abortion group March for Life does not have to offer insurance coverage for contraceptives under President Obama’s health care law, marking the first time an exemption was granted for moral, rather than religious, reasons.”  Although the Affordable Care Act generally requires employers to offer employees health insurance plans that include coverage for contraceptives, churches are exempted from the requirement, and other religiously oriented nonprofits have gradually obtained a similar accommodation (which some continue to litigate as insufficiently protective of their religious convictions). 

The story reports why Judge Leon’s ruling is significant:

Leon ruled that the Obama administration, through the Department of Health and Human Services, already is going further than protecting religious beliefs through its exemptions. Rather, he said, it is “protecting a moral philosophy about the sanctity of human life” — a philosophy shared by many non-religious groups, particularly one “founded exclusively on pro-life principles.”

 

“March for Life has been excised from the fold because it is not ‘religious,'” Leon wrote. “This is nothing short of regulatory favoritism.”

This decision is sure to spark a fire of commentary and additional analysis.  Readers can expect more blog coverage of this fascinating legal development.

JRB