Carter Snead, professor of law at Notre Dame and director of the exceptional Center for Ethics and Culture (a lead author of the “Unacceptable” letter issued immediately in response to the president’s unsatisfactory “accommodation” on the coercive HHS mandate), there adds to what Kyle Duncan of Becket has said — also pointing out that Notre Dame is still suing the administration over the president’s health-care law:
According to Snead, the 5-4 decision, which upheld the minimum coverage requirement of the Affordable Care Act while invalidating one aspect of the law relating to the expansion of the Medicaid program, leaves intact “the preventive services mandate, under which the administration has required virtually every employer in America, including the University of Notre Dame, to facilitate the provision of contraceptives (including drugs that the FDA has determined can function as abortifacients) and sterilizations to its employees, remains in place. Nothing today changes the posture or rationale of Notre Dame’s lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services. The Court was not asked to address—and thus did not address—those issues of religious liberty raised by Notre Dame, nor those of the dozens of other plaintiffs who filed suit around the country last month.
You may recall that at a speech at the University of Notre Dame, the president said: “Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women.”
But the president’s view of what is “sensible” is an affront to the First Amendment.