Grace College Joins Suit Opposing Contraception Mandate
Posted
Staff Report-
SOUTH BEND – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the Obama administration on behalf of two evangelical Christian colleges.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Grace College and Seminary and Biola University in California.
The lawsuit is the latest to challenge the administration’s unconstitutional mandate that faith-based employers provide insurance coverage for so-called "abortion-inducing drugs" at no cost to employees regardless of religious or moral objections, according to a press release issued by the Alliance Defending Freedom organization to the Times-Union.
The new lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the northern district of Indiana, Grace College and Seminary v. Sebelius, argues that the mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as well as the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.Grace College President Ronald E. Manahan provided comments on the suit.
“Government officials do not have the right to require religious organizations to act in a way contrary to deeply held religious beliefs, nor do they have the right to define what constitutes the free exercise of religion,” Manahan said. “To determine that Grace College and Seminary is not religious enough to qualify for an exemption from this mandate is an affront to the religious freedom and free conscience of dedicated Christian organizations across America.”
Attorney Jane Dall Wilson, of Faegre Baker Daniels, LLP, Indianapolis, is local counsel in the case.
Biola University legal counsel Jerry Mackey is also participating in the case.
Christian colleges should remain free to operate according to their deeply-held beliefs, said Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Gregory S. Baylor.
“Punishing religious people and organizations for freely exercising their faith is an assault on our most fundamental American freedoms,” Baylor said. “This mandate leaves religious employers with no real choice: You must either comply and abandon your religious freedom and conscience, or resist and be taxed for your faith.”
Baylor said every American should know that a government with the power to do this to anyone can do this – and worse – to everyone.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys have already filed three other lawsuits against the mandate.
There is one suit on behalf of Geneva College and The Seneca Hardwood Lumber Company in Pennsylvania, one on behalf of Louisiana College in Louisiana and one on behalf of Hercules Industries in Colorado, in which a federal judge issued an order preventing the mandate from being enforced against the family-run business.
