Mocking Justice and Common Sense: A Federal Court Rules Against the Little Sisters of the Poor

For more than 150 years, the Little Sisters of the Poor have faithfully served the poor, motivated by a religious calling to surrender all for the sake of others. And their service meets top-tier standards. In the state of Delaware, for instance, four of the state’s roughly 50 long-term care facilities for the elderly receive perfect scores regarding the quality of care. “Of that elite group, one—Little Sisters of the Poor in Newark—almost exclusively serves patients on Medicaid.” 

Even though the nuns offer 5-star care on a Medicaid budget, they have been engaged in a long-running legal battle over the federal government’s contraception mandates. After several court victories, this battle has now taken an ominous turn since a federal court has ruled against an exemption that permitted the religious order’s opposition to the mandate to take shape. 

The latest blow to the Little Sisters came on August 13th after the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Agreeing with the states’ elected representatives who believe in the preeminence of abortion and individual autonomy, the court concluded that the federal government’s exemptions, which were issued during the first Trump Administration, were “‘arbitrary [and] capricious’ and failed to adhere to the requirements of the federal Administrative Procedure Act.” This decision comes even though the Little Sisters of the Poor scored a victory at the United States Supreme Court in 2020.

Readers may recall that the Little Sisters were required to comply with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). This law: 

Requires covered employers to provide women with ‘preventive care and screenings’ without ‘any cost sharing requirements,’ and relies on Preventive Care Guidelines... supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration’ (HRSA) to determine what ‘preventive care and screenings’ include. [HRSA] Guidelines mandate that health plans provide coverage for all Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods. 

Of great importance, HRSA has the discretion to exempt religious employers, such as churches, from providing contraceptive coverage. Despite such discretion and even though the legal issues before the federal court are the same ones that propelled the Little Sisters to win a victory before the Supreme Court, the federal court has vacated the exemptions issued by the federal government in their entirety. 

Notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision upholding the Trump Administration’s exemptions, the federal district court has decided to mock justice and mock common sense, because the court is more concerned with the advancement of elite values premised on individual autonomy rather than the sanctity of life. Essentially, the court’s preeminent concern for conceptive coverage (abortion) takes precedence over the efforts of the Little Sisters of the Poor to feed and care for the elderly. 

The federal district court’s decision places the religious beliefs of churches and religious institutions under intense scrutiny. If this decision stands, then the nation’s first freedom, the free exercise of religion, has once again been placed under threat, thus suggesting that now more than ever, prayer and further litigation are required.