By Terry Baynes and Jonathan Stempel
Nov 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared
the way for a Christian college to pursue a religion-based
challenge against part of President Barack Obama's healthcare
reform, which it claims forces taxpayers and employers to
subsidize abortions and contraception.
Liberty University, based in Lynchburg, Virginia, may now
also argue that Congress exceeded its power by requiring big
employers to provide healthcare coverage to workers, though
legal experts said the argument faces an uphill battle in court.
In June, the Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote upheld most of the
healthcare reform, but left open a possibility for groups or
individuals to challenge how the law is applied.
Monday's order allows for oral argument to proceed in the
4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.
Liberty University filed one of the first private lawsuits
against the overhaul, on the day Obama signed the law in 2010.
It claimed that forcing individual taxpayers and employers
to subsidize abortions and contraception impeded the free
exercise of religion under the First Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.
The Supreme Court decision in June did not address the
employer mandate or the religious freedom claims, according to
the university.
Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University in
Virginia, said the challenge to the employer mandate would be a
"tough sell" based on the June decision, which let Congress
require people to buy health insurance under its power to tax.
"If you look at the way Chief Justice John Roberts upheld
the individual mandate, and made it a tax, there is considerable
reluctance on his part to strike down a major portion of this
law," Somin said.
JURISDICTION?
In September 2011, the 4th Circuit had said it lacked
jurisdiction because challenging the mandates would have
violated the federal Anti-Injunction Act's ban on lawsuits
seeking to halt collection of a tax.
The Supreme Court in June formally declined to review
Liberty's appeal. But the university later said that because the
4th Circuit was wrong to decide it lacked jurisdiction, its
decision should be thrown out, and a new lawsuit should proceed.
In October, the Obama administration said the university's
claims lacked merit, but Solicitor General Donald Verrilli in a
court filing said that "under the circumstances of this case,
(the government defendants) do not oppose further proceedings in
the court of appeals to resolve them."
Liberty Counsel, a law firm that represents the university,
said Monday's order could pave the way for the case to return to
the Supreme Court in 2013.
"Congress exceeded its power by forcing every employer to
provide federally mandated insurance," Liberty Counsel lawyer
Mathew Staver said in a statement. "But even more shocking is
the abortion mandate, which collides with religious freedom and
the rights of conscience."
The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.
More than 40 other lawsuits are challenging a mandate that
group health plans provide coverage for emergency
contraceptives, according to the Becket Fund for Religious
Liberty. At least two federal judges have temporarily blocked
the requirement from being enforced against the religious owners
of a family business.
The case is Liberty University et al v. Geithner et al, U.S.
Supreme Court, No. 11-438.
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