On Friday afternoon, the Court issued its much-anticipated order in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Sebelius, giving the nuns at least a temporary victory in their efforts to avoid filing a government form to be exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that they provide their female employees with health insurance that includes access to birth control. Lyle Denniston reported on the latest developments for this blog; other coverage and commentary come from Rick Hasen, who suggests at his Election Law Blog that “what looks like a victory against having to do a symbolic act may really be a defeat in having to do the nearly identical symbolic act”; from Michael Dorf at Dorf on Law, who contends that “it is hard not to read the order as reflecting at least some view on the merits”; and from Leland E. Beck at Federal Regulations Advisor, who similarly observes that the Court’s order “effectively cautions the lower courts that the issue presented by the regulations is problematic; even though SCOTUS warns that the procedural order should not be read as an indication of the Court’s view on the substantive issues.”
Briefly:
[Disclosure: Kevin Russell of Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, was among the counsel to the petitioner in Riley, but the firm will not be involved in the proceedings on the merits.]
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