A three-judge panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta heard oral arguments yesterday in EWTN’s case against the government’s controversial birth control mandate which requires employer-sponsored health plans to provide full coverage for contraception, abortion inducing drugs and sterilization procedures or face massive fines.
“After today’s hearing, I am more encouraged than ever that the courts will protect EWTN and other similar institutions by affirming our right to religious freedom,” said EWTN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw.
“From its beginning, EWTN has been dedicated to proclaiming and living out our Catholic faith. We are encouraged by today’s hearing and hopeful that the court will protect EWTN’s religious freedom and allow us to continue to practice what we broadcast to the world every day.”
EWTN originally filed a lawsuit against the mandate in 2012 arguing that the government’s order to provide services which it considers morally objectionable was unconstitutional. That first lawsuit was dismissed on technical grounds in March 2013. The Network filed a new suit in October 2013 and was joined as a co-plaintiff by the State of Alabama and its Attorney General Luther Strange.
In June 2014 US District Court Judge Callie Granade ruled against the Network and refused to provide EWTN with protection from the mandate while the case was appealed. However, just days later the US Supreme Court issued its historic ruling protecting certain for-profit companies from the mandate in the Hobby Lobby case, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary injunction to EWTN. That injunction has allowed EWTN to continue its court challenge of the mandate without incurring the penalties of more than $35,000 per day that would have begun on July 1, 2014.
“The government is threatening a religious ministry with millions of dollars in fines for following its faith,” said Lori Windham, Senior Counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and lead attorney for EWTN.
“Eternal Word Television Network spends all day every day expressing its Catholic beliefs worldwide in TV, radio, and print; it hosts daily masses at a shrine on its grounds, which are held by monks that live there. Yet the government says EWTN is not religious enough to have the freedom to practice what it preaches. That’s wrong.”
Thus far, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against the mandate and the government has lost almost all of them.
“Religious ministries have been winning these challenges overwhelmingly. Most courts understand that the government can’t fine you for living your faith,” said Windham.
Founded by Mother Mary Angelica, a Poor Clare Nun, the EWTN Global Catholic Network is now in its 34th year. EWTN is available in over 238 million television households in more than 140 countries and territories. With itsdirect broadcast satellite televisionand radio services, AM & FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave radio station, Internet website, electronicand print news services,and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world.
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