Overview

• On June 16, the Supreme Court vacated the New York Court of Appeals’ 2024 decision upholding the state’s requirement that employer-sponsored plans cover medically necessary abortions.
• The justices directed New York’s highest court to reconsider whether the regulation’s exemption for religious employers primarily serving co-religionists violates the First Amendment’s free exercise clause.
• The order references the Court’s June 5 unanimous ruling reinstating a Wisconsin Catholic diocese’s tax exemption under strict scrutiny review.
• New York’s Department of Financial Services adopted the abortion coverage requirement in 2017 and the state legislature codified it in 2022 with a carve-out critics call too narrow.
• The challenge is led by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and affiliated entities including a nursing home run by Catholic nuns that say their broader charitable missions are excluded.