Amicus Brief: Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania
AMICUS BRIEF SUMMARY
NCLA stated that in adopting the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Pub. L. 111-148 (2010), Congress improperly delegated to the administrative state the power to write laws governing the conduct of health insurance providers. Administrative agencies responded to that delegation by adopting a contraceptive-coverage requirement Congress itself never enacted. Later concluding that the requirement substantially burdened the exercise of religion by some employers, those agencies expanded a religious exemption from the requirement.
While the agencies lack constitutional authority to exercise legislative power vested in Congress, NCLA urged reversal on the theory that administrative relief is at least as constitutionally appropriate as administrative constraint; they travel together.
NCLA was also concerned that administrative agencies—because they focus their attention on a narrow range of delegated tasks and are not directly answerable to voters—are far more likely than Congress itself to systematically undervalue the constitutionally protected religious liberties of Americans.
NCLA asked the Court to correct for that undervaluation when it addresses administrative-law issues.
In a victory for NCLA, the U.S. Supreme Court on July 8, 2020, upheld the Executive Branch’s decision to expand the religious exemption from its contraceptive-coverage requirement.
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STATUS: Closed. In a victory for NCLA, the U.S. Supreme Court on July 8, 2020, upheld the Executive Branch’s decision to expand the religious exemption from its contraceptive-coverage requirement.
COURT: SCOTUS
DOCUMENT: Nos. 19-431, 19-454
COUNSEL OF RECORD: Richard A. Samp
FILED: March 9, 2020
PRESS RELEASES
July 8, 2020 | Little Sisters Supreme Court Decision Preserves Religious Liberty but Does Not Reach Delegation Issue
Washington, DC (July 8, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, commends today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the religious liberty of Catholic nuns in the Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania case. The Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the Little Sisters, holding that the religious exemption rule issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not violate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or the Administrative Procedure Act when it broadened the religious exemption to ACA’s “contraceptive mandate.” The mandate (deliberately left out of the ACA itself) was ordered by the Obama Administration in implementing regulations.
Much of NCLA’s amicus brief focused on the problem created by the ACA’s extremely broad delegation of legislative power. When Congress unlawfully delegates legislative power to the Executive Branch. Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinion for the Court explained that “[n]o party has pressed a constitutional challenge to the breadth of the delegation involved here.” But he noted the “extraordinarily ‘broad general directiv[e]’” Congress granted to HHS by the ACA, and he cited to Gundy, the Court’s recent (but ultimately inconclusive) consideration of the nondelegation doctrine.
The Court agreed with NCLA that the lower court improperly overturned the Trump Administration’s expansion of the religious exemption first created by the Obama Administration.NCLA is also the only amicus curiae that alerted the Court to the extremely broad delegation of authority to the agency found in the ACA. Under our Constitution, the President and the agencies he directs cannot legislate. NCLA’s brief was the only one before the Court to raise this nondelegation concern.
NCLA also argued that where, as here, an administrative agency had fashioned a rule to lessen the burden on religious liberty, such an action should not be disfavored by the Courts but welcomed. Today’s decision clearly ruled in favor of that proposition stating: “…the plain language of the statute clearly allows the Departments to create the preventive care standards as well as the religious and moral exemptions.”
NCLA released the following statements:
“The Court is clearly aware of the extremely broad delegation issues ACA presents, and also alive to the need to accommodate religious liberty. We are pleased both with the outcome for the Little Sisters whose work the Court went out of its way to praise, and the firm foundation this case provides for further judicial protection of religious liberty and the structure of our Constitution.”
—Richard Samp, NCLA Senior Litigation Counsel
“Today’s positive outcome is being misreported. The Affordable Care Act did not create a religious exemption; the Obama Administration did that in the ACA’s implementing regulations. The question in the Little Sisters case was simply whether the Trump Administration could expand that exemption, and the answer is a resounding yes.”
—Mark Chenoweth, NCLA Executive Director and General Counsel
ABOUT NCLA
NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.
March 9, 2020 | NCLA Amicus Brief Defends Religious Exemption to Federal Obamacare Regulations
Washington, D.C., March 09, 2020 – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, today filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania. The brief asks the Court to reverse the Third Circuit’s decision striking down a 2017 religious exemption rule issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The rule seeks to expand narrow religious exemptions to a “Contraceptive Mandate” ordered by the Obama Administration in regulations implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
In a previous case, the Supreme Court held that the Contraceptive Mandate violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), because it forced religious groups to act against their beliefs. Specifically, it required the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide employees a health plan with coverage for contraceptives they believe may induce abortions. Nonetheless, in reviewing a subsequent rule with broader exemptions, the Third Circuit held HHS possesses extensive discretion to specify “additional preventive care” for which employers are required to provide coverage, but that the agency lacks discretion to more broadly exempt employers with sincerely held religious objections from any mandate. No principle of administrative or constitutional law—and nothing in the text of the ACA or RFRA—requires that unjust result.
NCLA’s brief points out that interpreting the ACA to authorize the mandate, while simultaneously interpreting it to limit agencies’ authority to provide religious exemptions, would undermine RFRA’s protections for religious Americans. Such a one-sided interpretation of the ACA (and RFRA) also undercuts the Constitution’s protections for religious liberty. These include not only the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment but also vesting legislative power in the hands of an elected Congress rather than an unelected Administrative State that is less willing to accommodate religion.
This entire episode points out in concrete terms the problem with Congress unlawfully delegating legislative power. Even though the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Little Sisters, protecting them from the original Contraceptive Mandate, the Third Circuit’s ruling has forced the Catholic nuns to continue to defend themselves in court six years after they began their battle against a Contraceptive Mandate that Congress itself never ordered.
NCLA released the following statements:
“The Affordable Care Act unconstitutionally delegated unbridled authority to regulators to require employers to cover additional, unspecified health services. Administrators should not be faulted, whether here or in another context, when they reduce the scope of such unauthorized legislative activity.” —Richard Samp, NCLA Senior Litigation Counsel
“No accountable branch of government ever voted for the plan created by the Third Circuit. The Affordable Care Act did not contain a Contraceptive Mandate, and the one HHS issued included a significant exemption for groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor. The Supreme Court should intervene to prevent a panel of the Third Circuit from cobbling together a law that no Congress ever passed and no President ever signed.” —Mark Chenoweth, NCLA Executive Director and General Counsel
ABOUT NCLA
NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.
For more information visit us online at NCLAlegal.org.