Saints be praised! The University of Notre Dame has filed a
lawsuit against the federal government over its now infamous
mandate requiring religious institutions and their insurers to pay
for abortifacients, sterilization and contraception in violation of
their rights of religious liberty and self-definition.
In a statement posted on the university’s website, and
transmitted by e-mail to many stakeholders, Father John Jenkins,
its president, announced the action. The suit was filed in
the United States District Court for the Northern District of
Indiana.
In nine counts the Irish allege that the government violated
Notre Dame’s rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,
the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act, which
governs rule-making by federal agencies. All in all, the pleadings
are a fine piece of legal craftsmanship by the national law firm of
Jones Day and the university’s general counsel.
Unusual for most legal pleadings, Notre Dame’s complaint
generates passion in its allegations:
This lawsuit is about one of America’s most cherished freedoms:
the freedom to practice one’s religion without government
interference. It is not about whether people have a right to
abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception…. But the
right to such services does not authorize the Government to force
the University of Notre Dame… to violate its own conscience by
making it provide, pay for, and/or facilitate those services to
others, contrary to its sincerely held religious beliefs. American
history and tradition, embodied in the First Amendment to the
United States Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration
Act, protects religious entities from such overbearing and
oppressive governmental action. Notre Dame therefore seeks relief
in this Court to protect this most fundamental of American
rights.
Father Jenkins bends over backwards in his public announcement
to affirm that “We do not seek to impose our religious beliefs on
others; we simply ask that the Government not impose its values on
the University when those values conflict with our religious
teachings.”
In case the Obama administration did not get the message, coming
from the head of an institution that only recently invited the
President to give a commencement address and receive an honorary
degree, Father Jenkins rejected the right of government to define
the mission of his and other religious institutions.
“For if one Presidential Administration can override our
religious purpose and use religious organizations to advance
policies that undercut our values, then surely another
Administration will do the same for another very different set of
policies, each time invoking some concept of popular will or the
public good, with the result these religious organizations become
mere tools for the exercise of government power, morally
subservient to the state, and not free from its infringement,”
argued Jenkins. “If that happens, it will be the end of genuinely
religious organizations in all but name.”
It seems that Father Jenkins knows well the writings of James
Madison as well as St. Thomas More.
I will leave further legal analysis to constitutional scholars,
but the political implications of this lawsuit are quite stunning.
One of America’s leading Catholic institutions, which was
previously perceived to be in President Obama’s camp, at least on
health care issues, is now compelled to seek legal redress in
federal court to overturn a violation of its religious integrity by
that very same President.
If Catholics are truly the “jump ball” of American presidential
politics, this has to be a very big minus for President Obama’s
re-election campaign. More importantly, it puts the President on
the wrong side of the religious liberty issue and thereby alienates
many Americans who have no truck with Catholic doctrine or
practice. In sum, President Obama has managed to coalesce an
ecumenical front against him over the right, not just to worship in
a church or cloister, but to practice one’s religion freely, in the
public square, as an individual and as part of a collective body of
fellow worshipers.
Go Irish!
