Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has put the question of required birth control coverage in play. The justice issued an injunction Tuesday against a healthcare reform provision that requires non-religious employers to cover employee birth control.
At issue is a nonprofit called Little Sisters of the Poor, which is not a religious organization but is affiliated with religious groups, a position that puts it in a neither-here-nor-there situation. These groups, as noted by the New York Times, do not have to provide direct birth-control coverage but do need to allow insurance companies to, which is where the catch is: NYT notes that the issue is “whether the certification itself amounts to conduct that violates the groups’ religious faith.”
The White House has to issue a response by Friday.
