House Republicans aren't the
only dead-enders still fighting a battle that the Supreme Court already put away on Obamacare. Liberty University is
still litigating over it, and trying to expand their original filing. The Fourth Circuit will take up the case this month.
Liberty’s lawsuit now has several points: that the employer mandate violates the Commerce Clause; that the individual and employer mandates violate the First Amendment’s religious protections as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act; and that since the individual mandate’s penalty was ruled a tax by the Supreme Court, the bill should have started in the House—not the Senate.
The aspect of Liberty’s case that’s gotten the most attention from other plaintiffs may be its contraceptives claim. The school says that the law is violating its right to religious freedom by requiring it to cover, through its employee health plans, birth control and drugs that it says can cause abortions. More than 50 other lawsuits have been filed throughout the country, challenging the same provision. And the issue is likely to reach the Supreme Court. [...]
[T]he Obama administration’s lawyers say that Liberty didn’t file that charge back in 2010—the contraceptive coverage rules hadn’t come out yet—so it can’t add that to its lawsuit now.
That won't stop them from trying. Back in
September, 2011, the Fourth Circuit tossed Liberty's case on jurisdictional grounds. Liberty appealed, and the Supreme Court
sent it back, after asking the Justice Department to respond to the challenge. The DoJ wants to have this rehearing, probably because the Fourth Circuit is among the more liberal courts.
So, anyway, here we go again. Back on the floor of the House, and back in the courts.