Seventh Circuit Rules on For-Profit Companies’ Challenge to Contraception Rule

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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Court Of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit today issued a decision in a consolidated case brought by Korte Company, a construction company, and Grote Industries, a vehicle safety systems manufacturer. The plaintiffs sought an injunction to prevent compliance with the federal rule requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception. The court reversed an earlier decision denying the injunction.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, as in several others, supporting the Obama administration’s rule requiring contraceptive coverage in employee health insurance plans. The challenge in this case was brought by for-profit companies and their owners, who argued that the rule violates their religious liberty.

“This decision is a disappointment,” said Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the ACLU. “Your boss shouldn’t be able to discriminate against you because of what he or she believes, plain and simple. People are entitled to their own religious beliefs, but they don’t have the right to impose those views on others.”

This case is one of more than 70 across the country currently pending that address the rule requiring contraception coverage. This is the fifth Court of Appeals to rule on this matter, and the U.S. Supreme Court will decide later this month whether to take up one or more these cases.

For more information on the cases challenging the federal contraceptive coverage mandate go to www.aclu.org/reproductive-freedom/challenges-federal-contraceptive-coverage-rule.