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707 Member Catholic Benefits Association Makes Argument Supporting Little Sisters of the Poor Before Supreme Court
Contact: Sean Caine, Catholic Benefits Association, 410-547-5378, 443-857-4372 cell 

OKLAHOMA CITY, Aug. 27, 2015 /Standard Newswire/ -- The Catholic Benefits Association ("CBA") has lent its support via an amicus brief to the Little Sisters of the Poor in the latter's effort to get a hearing before the United States Supreme Court. 

In its amicus brief filed with the Court on Monday, the CBA – an association of 707 Catholic employers – urged the Supreme Court to take the Little Sisters of the Poor's case.  The order of Catholic nuns seeks reversal of the July 14 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit that rejected the order's plea for religious freedom protection from the federal mandate that forces it to facilitate the delivery of abortifacients and other services contrary to the nun's Catholic values.

After winning 85% of the U.S. District Court cases filed by an historic number of religious employers seeking religious liberty protection from the HHS abortifacient mandate, there have been a series of contrary decisions by the United States Courts of Appeals. 

Martin Nussbaum, lead counsel for the CBA, explained that the amicus brief "offers a direct critique of the foundational error in those opinions."  A copy of the CBA's amicus brief is available at www.catholicbenefitsassociation.com/cbn/en/resources/LittleSisters-SupremeCourt-Amicus-Brief.pdf.

Douglas Wilson, the CBA chief executive officer, commented that "if the government is determined to provide free contraceptives and abortifacients, it should certainly be able to find a way without hijacking the health care plan of nuns committed to helping the poorest among us." Wilson added: "Far from being alone in their religious views, the beliefs of these wonderful nuns are shared by all of our more than 700 employers. The use of government coercion against such a consensus is absolutely inconsistent with the great American tradition of the free exercise of religion."

The CBA brief notes that the Department of Justice attorneys have wrongly characterized the government's "accommodation" for groups like the Little Sisters as an "opt out" and contends that the accommodation is a "plan amendment masquerading as an opt out."  The CBA also contends that there is something amiss when federal Courts of Appeals conclude that the HHS mandate does not burden the conscience of the Little Sisters and other Catholic and evangelical Protestant ministries despite the fact that an historic number of such ministries have concluded otherwise.  Those ministries, including over 700 employers represented in the CBA's two lawsuits, Nussbaum writes in his brief, "have found the mandate so morally intolerable that they filed almost sixty lawsuits praying for the courts to protect their religious liberty."

The CBA is an association of Catholic employers formed in the wake of the HHS Mandate to help ensure that Catholic employers can provide health care coverage for their employees consistent with Catholic values.  It also assists Catholic employers through its subsidiary, the Catholic Insurance Company, with acquiring either stop loss insurance for self-funded plans or a full package of provider networks, benefits administration, and stop loss insurance.  More information about the CBA is available at www.catholicbenefitsassociation.com/en/index.html.