With the ink still drying on the administration's second failed attempt to placate religious employers who are suing the government over its coercive birth control mandate, the rule suffered two more losses in the courts.

Breitbart is reporting that on January 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals issued an injunction pending appeal in Grote Industries vs. Sebelius, a case involving an Indiana-based manufacturer of car lighting systems which is owned and managed by a family of Roman Catholics who object to birth control. In this case, the court held that there is enough of a chance that the mandate is in violation of federal religious liberty protections that the company does not need to comply with the regulation while its case is pending.

" Americans have the God-given freedom to live and do business according to their faith," said Matt Bowman of Alliance Defending Freedom, the lead lawyer on the case. "Forcing employers to surrender their faith in order to earn a living is unprecedented, unnecessary, and unconstitutional. Honoring God is important every day, in all areas of life, including in our work. Freedom is not the government’s to give and take away when it pleases."

The following day, February 1, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit also issued an injunction pending appeal in the case Annex Medical, Inc. v. Sebelius. The owner of Annex Medical, Stuart Lind, is a deeply religious man who objects to the mandate. The court ruled that the mandate likely violates his rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and, possibly, the Constitution.

"So a dozen such cases are now before different appellate courts, in different stages of appeal," writes Breitbart columnist Ken Klukowski, senior fellow for religious liberty at the Family Research Council and on faculty at Liberty University School of Law. This number does not count dozens more cases that are pending before trial-level district courts.

"Decisions on whether to issue what are called preliminary injunctions in these cases—which will be the next step in the legal process—are likely to start coming down in late spring, meaning that sometime this fall the Supreme Court could vote to take one or more of these cases, and decide the legality of Sebelius’ abortion-related mandate in 2014 once and for all."

Of the 14 cases brought by businesses that are run by religious individuals, 11 have been awarded injunctions in court. Onlythree businesses have lost their their bid to receive a temporary reprieve from oppressive fines that have to be paid as of January 1 by all employers who fail to provide their employees with free birth control.

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