Samaritan Ministries International v. Kane

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
• Decided: October 9, 2025
• Docket: 24-2187
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

Appellate Case: 24-2187 Document: 31-1 Date Filed: 10/09/2025 Page: 1 FILED United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT October 9, 2025 _________________________________ Christopher M. Wolpert Clerk of Court SAMARITAN MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL; ZACHARY CORDEL; RACHEL CORDEL; DAVID ALLEN BELL; MONETTE BELL; REV. ANDREW HEATH; HEATHER HEATH; JAY O’NEILL; AMY O’NEILL; REV. NATHAN BIENHOFF; REBEKAH BIENHOFF,

Plaintiffs - Appellants,

v. No. 24-2187 (D.C. No. 1:23-CV-01091-MIS-SCY) ALICE T. KANE, in her personal capacity (D. N.M.) and official capacity as Superintendent of Insurance for New Mexico,

Defendant - Appellee. _________________________________

ORDER AND JUDGMENT * _________________________________

Before HOLMES, Chief Judge, TYMKOVICH, and MORITZ, Circuit Judges. _________________________________

Samaritan Ministries International and ten of its members who reside in New

Mexico (“Plaintiffs”) filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against New Mexico

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined *

unanimously to honor the parties’ request for a decision on the briefs without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(f); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1. Appellate Case: 24-2187 Document: 31-1 Date Filed: 10/09/2025 Page: 2

Superintendent of Insurance, Alice T. Kane (“Defendant”). The district court

determined Plaintiffs failed to demonstrate Article III standing and dismissed their

claims for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Exercising jurisdiction under

28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

The Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) contains an insurance mandate that requires

applicable individuals to maintain minimum essential coverage. Samaritan Ministries

International (“Samaritan”) is a nonprofit healthcare sharing ministry (“HCSM”)

whose members are exempt from the ACA’s insurance mandate. Among other

things, an ACA-exempt HCSM is comprised of members with “a common set of . . .

religious beliefs” who “share medical expenses . . . in accordance with those beliefs

and without regard to the State in which a member resides or is employed.”

26 U.S.C. § 5000A(d)(2)(B)(ii)(II). “Samaritan is among the first and largest”

ACA-exempt HCSMs. J.A. vol. I at 61. It has members across the country,

including “918 members in New Mexico as of October 1, 2023.” Id. at 51.

Samaritan “limits its membership to likeminded Christians” who live “by

biblical principles,” attend church at least three times per month, and “abstain from

illegal substances[] and sexual activity outside of traditional biblical marriage.” Id.

at 55–56. It operates by “receiv[ing] information about members with current health

burdens and then ask[ing] fellow members to help bear and share those burdens

through funds, notes, and prayers.” Id. at 52. Samaritan collects “[s]uggested

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monthly contributions from members” but its members are not “legally obligated to

contribute funds” and “remain legally responsible for their own medical bills.” Id.

In December 2023, Samaritan and ten of its New Mexico members sued

Defendant in federal district court. Plaintiffs amended their complaint twice. Their

second amended complaint raised twelve claims alleging, under § 1983, that

Defendant supervised an “anti-HCSM campaign” that violated their First and

Fourteenth Amendment rights and the New Mexico Religious Freedom Restoration

Act. Id. at 82.

For relief, Plaintiffs sought to enjoin Defendant “from enforcing New Mexico

insurance laws against[] or exercising regulatory authority over” them, a declaratory

judgment that her “threatened actions” against them were unconstitutional and that

“Samaritan’s ministry qualifies as an HCSM under the ACA,” and various damages.

Id. at 108.

Defendant moved to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction under

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), arguing that she had neither acted against

Samaritan nor threatened to do so, and that Plaintiffs lacked Article III standing. The

district court granted the motion and dismissed the case under Rule 12(b)(1) for lack

of standing, concluding that Plaintiffs “failed to allege an actual or imminent injury

that is concre[]te and particularized for any of the twelve counts.” J.A. vol. I at 38.

Plaintiffs timely appealed.

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II. DISCUSSION

A. Legal Standards

We review de novo the dismissal of a complaint for lack of subject-matter

jurisdiction. Mann v. Boatright, 477 F.3d 1140, 1145 (10th Cir. 2007). Whether a

party has standing is a question of law, which we review de novo. Comm. to Save the

Rio Hondo v. Lucero, 102 F.3d 445, 447 (10th Cir 1996).

Article III of the Constitution permits federal courts to decide only “Cases” or

“Controversies.” U.S. CONST. art. III, § 2, cl. 1. “To establish a case or controversy,

a plaintiff must possess standing to sue.” S. Furniture Leasing, Inc. v. YRC, Inc.,

989 F.3d 1141, 1145 (10th Cir. 2021). For Article III standing, “a plaintiff must

show (1) an injury in fact, (2) a sufficient causal connection between the injury and

the conduct complained of, and (3) a likelihood that the injury will be redressed by a

favorable decision.” Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, 573 U.S. 149, 157–58

(2014) (brackets and internal quotation marks omitted).

An injury in fact is “an invasion of a legally protected interest which is

(a) concrete and particularized and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or

hypothetical.” Initiative & Referendum Inst. v. Walker, 450 F.3d 1082, 1087

(10th Cir. 2006) (en banc) (internal quotation marks omitted). “Where an injury is

threatened rather than actual, allegations of possible future injury are not sufficient to

establish standing.” Tennille v. W. Union Co., 809 F.3d 555, 560 (10th Cir. 2015)

(brackets and internal quotation marks omitted). But “[a]n allegation of future injury

may suffice if the threatened injury is certainly impending, or there is a substantial

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risk that the harm will occur.” Susan B. Anthony List, 573 U.S. at 158 (internal

quotation marks omitted).

“The party invoking federal jurisdiction bears the burden of establishing

standing.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). At the pleading stage, “plaintiff[s]

must clearly allege facts demonstrating each element [of standing],” Spokeo, Inc. v.

Robins, 578 U.S. 330, 338 (2016) (ellipsis and internal quotation marks omitted), and

“plaintiff[s] must demonstrate standing for each claim [they] seek[] to press and for

each form of relief that is sought,” Davis v. Fed. Election Comm’n, 554 U.S. 724,

734 (2008) (internal quotation marks omitted).

B. Analysis

To begin, Plaintiffs argue that the district court should have considered

post-complaint statements Defendant made (in her briefs before the district court in

this case and in discovery in a different case) as evidence in support of standing. But

standing is evaluated as of the time an action begins. See Clapper v. Amnesty Int’l

USA, 568 U.S. 398, 426 (2013) (“[W]e assess standing as of the time a suit is filed.”);

S. Utah Wilderness All. v. Palma, 707 F.3d 1143, 1153 (10th Cir. 2013) (stating that

“standing is determined at the time the action is brought and we generally look to

when the complaint was first filed, not to subsequent events to determine if a plaintiff

has standing.” (ellipsis and internal quotation marks omitted)). And the statements

Plaintiffs wanted the district court to consider related to facts that arose after they

filed their complaint. Thus, the district court correctly concluded that the

post-complaint statements cannot establish standing to proceed in this action.

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Plaintiffs raised a pre-enforcement challenge to the Office of the New Mexico

Superintendent of Insurance’s (“OSI’s”) alleged anti-HCSM policy. To show an

injury in fact in the context of a pre-enforcement challenge, Plaintiffs must allege “an

intention to engage in a course of conduct arguably affected with a constitutional

interest, but proscribed by statute, and there exists a credible threat of prosecution

thereunder.” Susan B. Anthony List, 573 U.S. at 159 (internal quotation marks

omitted).

The district court found that Plaintiffs failed to “identify with particularity an

OSI policy” that proscribed their “constitutional interests” and failed to “provide

authority to support a broad view of pre-enforcement that would encompass their

theory.” J.A. vol. I at 30. On appeal, Plaintiffs argue that the policy they challenge

is “OSI’s new ‘functional’ ‘interpretive’ policy for applying the ‘statutory’

‘definition’ of ‘insurance’ to HCSMs.” Opening Br. at 21 (quoting second amended

complaint). But, as Defendant correctly points out, New Mexico’s statutory

definition of insurance does not proscribe any conduct. See N.M. Stat. Ann.

§ 59A-1-5 (“‘Insurance’ is a contract whereby one undertakes to pay or indemnify

another as to loss from certain specified contingencies or perils, or to pay or grant a

specified amount or determinable benefit in connection with ascertainable risk

contingencies, or to act as surety.”). And Plaintiffs did not allege that any other

statute proscribes their conduct.

Next, the district court determined that Plaintiffs failed to establish “a history

of past enforcement that warrants pre-enforcement standing.” J.A. vol. I at 35.

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Plaintiffs argue that OCI’s enforcement history against five other HCSMs is a strong

sign that they are at risk of enforcement; they contend that the district court

improperly “discounted years of serial enforcements against Samaritan’s HCSM

peers that showed a credible imminent threat to Plaintiffs.” Opening Br. at 5.

Regarding the five HCSMs Plaintiffs highlight, the district court found that

two of the organizations did not qualify as ACA-exempt HCSMs, one had

outstanding fraud claims in other states, one had a consumer complaint, and the last

was subject to a third-party investigation. We agree with the district court’s

conclusions that “[i]n each example, OSI instigated an investigation under

circumstances unique to the parties involved, resulting in findings specific to

individual circumstances” and Plaintiffs did not demonstrate “the inevitability of

comparable fraud claims or formal complaints against Samaritan” and failed to

properly plead “that a particular result is imminent.” J.A. vol. I at 35.

Plaintiffs argue they did not need to show a past threat to demonstrate they are

at risk of prosecution, pointing out that Defendant has not said she will not pursue

action against them in the future. Plaintiffs are correct that “a credible threat of

prosecution can be found where no actual threats have been made.” Frank v. Lee,

84 F.4th 1119, 1134 (10th Cir. 2023), cert. denied, 144 S. Ct. 1349 (2024). In fact,

“[t]he threat of prosecution is generally credible where a challenged provision on its

face proscribes the conduct in which a plaintiff wishes to engage, and the state has

not disavowed any intention of invoking the provision against the plaintiff.” Id.

(emphasis added, ellipsis and internal quotation marks omitted).

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Here, Defendant has not affirmatively disavowed any intent to prosecute. But,

as discussed above, the statute Plaintiffs challenge does not facially proscribe any

conduct, let alone the conduct they wish to engage in. Thus, Plaintiffs have not

shown that the injury they fear is “certainly impending” or that “there is a substantial

risk that the harm will occur.” Susan B. Anthony List, 573 U.S. at 158 (internal

The district court did not err in concluding that Plaintiffs failed to allege facts

demonstrating an injury in fact and therefore lacked Article III standing to pursue this

litigation.

III. CONCLUSION

We affirm the district court’s judgment.

Entered for the Court

Jerome A. Holmes Chief Judge