In “The Bells of St. Mary’s,” a nun played by Ingrid Bergman famously teaches a boy who had been bullied to box — even though she personally abhors violence.
The Little Sisters of the Poor seem to have taken the lesson.
Because they just sent President Obama to the mat over his contraceptive mandate. In a ruling that includes no dissent, the Supreme Court did not simply stay an order: It enjoined the executive branch from enforcing the mandate on the sisters while the case is pending before the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Though it is an issue decided on procedural grounds, it is a big victory for both the sisters and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented them. All along, the Obama administration has argued it has accommodated religious nonprofits that object to the mandate. But this “accommodation” requires the Little Sisters to designate a third-party administrator to provide the objectionable coverage.
The Little Sisters quite rightly deem this a gimmick, meant to sustain the fiction the sisters won’t be paying. The Archdiocese of New York takes the same view.
“It’s just a form,” the Obama administration responds.
But Friday’s Supreme Court move preventing the administration from forcing the sisters to sign until the case is disposed of suggests they don’t think it’s just a form. Though the ruling applies only to the Little Sisters, it ought to make the Health and Human Services Department leery of trying to enforce it’s “accommodation” on other religious nonprofits. And it may lead Notre Dame, which was denied an injunction by the 7th Circuit, to refile.
For Little Sisters, they pack a big punch.