Supreme Court Declines to Rule on Religious Colleges’ Contraception Case

Rather than rule on the merits of a challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s provision for private health-insurance plans to offer women free access to contraception, the U.S. Supreme Court decided on Monday to send the case back to a lower court.

During oral arguments in the case, Zubik v. Burwell, No. 14-1418, in March, lawyers representing religious colleges argued that their clients were morally opposed to any involvement of their employee-insurance plans in providing contraception coverage. The Obama administration defended its position to deny exemptions to the federal provision.

Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, colleges must show that their religious exercise is burdened significantly by the federal contraception requirement. There is no cost to the employer to provide contraception, but some religious colleges argue that it makes them indirectly complicit with a practice that they do not condone.