Overview

• U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone ruled that the 2018 Religious and Moral Rules exempting employers from providing contraceptive coverage were arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.
• The court found the rules’ sweeping scope lacked a rational connection to the limited number of employers needing exemptions, undermining the agencies’ stated justification.
• This merits-level vacatur is the first substantive judicial rejection of the Trump-era rules since their issuance and remands them to HHS, Labor and Treasury for further review.
• The Little Sisters of the Poor, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, have said they will appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals with Supreme Court review possible.
• The contested rules had removed application requirements and allowed nonprofits, for-profit and publicly traded firms to opt out of the ACA contraceptive mandate, prompting state lawsuits over projected costs to state health programs.