Is this déjà vu? No, the Little Sisters of the Poor are BACK at #SCOTUS, asking the Justices to let them get back to serving the elderly poor. Let’s go back to the beginning (THREAD):
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In 2013, the Little Sisters went to court to protect their #religiousfreedom against a #HHSmandate requiring employers to provide contraceptives, like the week-after pill, in their insurance plans.
That New Year’s Eve, Justice Sotomayor issued an emergency order to protect them, right before going to watch the ball drop in Times Square. The entire court affirmed that order in 2014 without dissent.
But lower courts didn’t get the message and ruled against the Little Sisters again. So in 2016 the Supreme Court stepped in again—and again acted unanimously—to protect the Little Sisters of the Poor.
After years of losing to the Sisters at the Supreme Court, the federal government finally got the issue right and agreed to leave them alone. Religious exemptions were issued in 2017 and finalized last November. s3.amazonaws.com/becketnewsite/…. .
Unfortunately, several states (not a typo, 20 states + D.C.) then sued the federal government, asking a federal judge to order the federal government to make nuns give out contraceptives. You can’t make this stuff up. This legal battle has gone on for 6 years too long.
The states have admitted they have many programs to provide contraceptives to women who want them, without forcing the Sisters to do so.
In a divided country, there are many things reasonable people can disagree on—but it is silly to think the government needs to bully nuns to give out contraceptives.
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