Court Rebukes Challenge to HHS Mandate

A federal district court in Missouri on Friday rejected a series of challenges from a Catholic business owner who says the Obama administration is forcing him to violate his conscience by offering contraceptives and potential abortion-inducing drugs in employees’ insurance plans.
Frank O’Brien, who owns O’Brien Industrial Holdings in St. Louis, filed the lawsuit against the Obama administration in March saying the mandate violated his religious liberties.
“The main reason the district court rejected the challenges is that it found being forced to pay for this type of coverage is not a burden to your religious liberty,” said Francis Manion, senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which is representing O’Brien.
That means there are now two different rulings from federal courts about the legality of the federal mandate: In July, a judge ruled that the Catholic owners of a Denver company do not have to comply with the order until the lawsuit is resolved.
Manion called the court’s decision “so profoundly wrong from a legal standpoint.”
The case will be argued before a panel of three judges on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals within a few months.  
(link to article)