Wheaton College v. Sylvia Burwell

134 S. Ct. 2806, 189 L. Ed. 2d 856, 83 U.S.L.W. 3011, 2014 WL 3020426, 2014 U.S. LEXIS 4706
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedJuly 3, 2014
Docket13A1284.
StatusRelating-to
Cited by43 cases

This text of 134 S. Ct. 2806 (Wheaton College v. Sylvia Burwell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wheaton College v. Sylvia Burwell, 134 S. Ct. 2806, 189 L. Ed. 2d 856, 83 U.S.L.W. 3011, 2014 WL 3020426, 2014 U.S. LEXIS 4706 (U.S. 2014).

Opinion

Justice SCALIA concurs in the result.

Justice SOTOMAYOR, with whom Justice GINSBURG and Justice KAGAN join, dissenting.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 124 Stat. 119 , through its implementing regulations, requires employer group health insurance plans to cover contraceptive services without cost sharing. Recognizing that people of religious faith may sincerely oppose the provision of contraceptives, the Government has created certain exceptions to this requirement. Churches are categorically exempt. Any religious nonprofit is also exempt, as long as it signs a form certifying that it is a religious nonprofit that objects to the provision of contraceptive services, and provides a copy of that form to its insurance issuer or third-party administrator. The *2808 form is simple. The front asks the applicant to attest to the foregoing representations; the back notifies third-party administrators of their regulatory obligations.

The matter before us is an application for an emergency injunction filed by Wheaton College, a nonprofit liberal arts college in Illinois. There is no dispute that Wheaton is entitled to the religious-nonprofit exemption from the contraceptive coverage requirement. Wheaton nonetheless asserts that the exemption itself impermissibly burdens Wheaton's free exercise of its religion in violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), 107 Stat. 1488 , 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb et seq ., on the theory that its filing of a self-certification form will make it complicit in the provision of contraceptives by triggering the obligation for someone else to provide the services to which it objects. Wheaton has not stated a viable claim under RFRA. Its claim ignores that the provision of contraceptive coverage is triggered not by its completion of the self-certification form, but by federal law.

Even assuming that the accommodation somehow burdens Wheaton's religious exercise, the accommodation is permissible under RFRA because it is the least restrictive means of furthering the Government's compelling interests in public health and women's well-being. Indeed, just earlier this week in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. , 573 U.S. ----, 134 S.Ct. 2751 , --- L.Ed.2d ---- (2014), the Court described the accommodation as "a system that seeks to respect the religious liberty of religious nonprofit corporations while ensuring that the employees of these entities have precisely the same access to all [Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ]-approved contraceptives as employees of companies whose owners have no religious objections to providing such coverage." 573 U.S., at ----, 134 S.Ct., at 2759 , 2014 WL 2921709 , at *6. And the Court concluded that the accommodation "constitutes an alternative that achieves all of the Government's aims while providing greater respect for religious liberty." Ibid. Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word. Not so today. After expressly relying on the availability of the religious-nonprofit accommodation to hold that the contraceptive coverage requirement violates RFRA as applied to closely held for-profit corporations, the Court now, as the dissent in Hobby Lobby feared it might, see 573 U.S., at ---- - ----, 134 S.Ct., at 2801 - 2802, 2014 WL 2921709 , at *42-43 (GINSBURG, J., dissenting), retreats from that position. That action evinces disregard for even the newest of this Court's precedents and undermines confidence in this institution.

Even if one accepts Wheaton's view that the self-certification procedure violates RFRA, that would not justify the Court's action today. The Court grants Wheaton a form of relief as rare as it is extreme: an interlocutory injunction under the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651 , blocking the operation of a duly enacted law and regulations, in a case in which the courts below have not yet adjudicated the merits of the applicant's claims and in which those courts have declined requests for similar injunctive relief. Injunctions of this nature are proper only where "the legal rights at issue are indisputably clear." Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC , 507 U.S. 1301 , 1303, 113 S.Ct. 1806 , 123 L.Ed.2d 642 (1993) (Rehnquist, C.J., in chambers) (internal quotation marks omitted). Yet the Court today orders this extraordinary relief even though no one could credibly claim Wheaton's right to relief is indisputably clear.

The sincerity of Wheaton's deeply held religious beliefs is beyond refute. But as a *2809 legal matter, Wheaton's application comes nowhere near the high bar necessary to warrant an emergency injunction from this Court. For that reason, I respectfully dissent.

I

A

The Affordable Care Act requires certain employer group health insurance plans to cover a number of preventative-health services without cost sharing. These services include "[a]ll Food and Drug Administration ... approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity, as prescribed by a provider." 77 Fed. Reg. 8725 (2012) (brackets and internal quotation marks omitted). As a practical matter, the provision ensures that women have access to contraception at no cost beyond their insurance premiums. Employers that do not comply with the mandate are subject to civil penalties.

Recognizing that some religions disapprove of contraceptives, the Government has sought to implement the mandate in a manner consistent with the freedom of conscience.

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Bluebook (online)
134 S. Ct. 2806, 189 L. Ed. 2d 856, 83 U.S.L.W. 3011, 2014 WL 3020426, 2014 U.S. LEXIS 4706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wheaton-college-v-sylvia-burwell-scotus-2014.