EWTN Press Release: Court rules against EWTN in HHS Mandate Case

Appeals Court Rules Against EWTN in HHS Mandate Case

11^th Circuit Court of Appeals Refuses to Protect Catholic Network

Irondale, AL (EWTN) –This afternoon, the 11^th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled against EWTN Global Catholic Network in its long-running battle against the government’s insurance mandate requiring employer-sponsored health plans to provide coverage for contraception, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs. A three-judge panel issued a 2-1 decision more than a year after oral arguments before the Appeals Court.

“We are extremely disappointed that the Court has refused to protect our religious freedom,” said EWTN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw. “This decision by the Court of Appeals ignores the arguments that EWTN and numerous plaintiffs around the country have made with regard to this mandate. In effect, this decision orders EWTN to violate its religious beliefs and comply with the government’s HHS mandate or pay massive fines to the IRS.”

In the majority opinion, the Court stated "We accept the plaintiffs’ sincere belief . . . that the accommodation puts them to a choice between honoring their religious beliefs and facing significant penalties. We nonetheless conclude that the accommodation imposes no substantial burden." 

“This is wrong,’ said Lori Windham, Senior Counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and lead attorney on the case. “Rather than provide these drugs and devices through its own exchanges, our government wants to punish EWTN for practicing its faith. This 2-1 decision is not the end. The government’s unconstitutional mandate has lost repeatedly at the Supreme Court, and we believe it will lose again.”
EWTN filed its original lawsuit Feb. 9, 2012 against the Department of Health & Human Services, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and other government agencies seeking to stop the imposition of the contraception mandate as well as asking the court for a declaratory judgment that the mandate is unconstitutional. The Attorney General of the State of Alabama filed a motion to join EWTN March 22, 2012 as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. That lawsuit was dismissed pending the final HHS mandate rules.

The final rules promulgated in July 2013 granted no relief to EWTN.  In October 2013, EWTN and Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange joined together to challenge the unconstitutional HHS mandate. A federal judge ruled against EWTN in that case as well.  Hours after the US Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case in June 2014, the 11^th Circuit granted EWTN an emergency injunction, protecting EWTN from the mandate while it filed an appeal. Today, a different panel of judges rendered a split decision, voting 2-1 against EWTN.

In a blistering dissent, Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat stated: "The majority runs roughshod over the sincerely held religious objections of Eternal Word Television Network," and concluded that "at bottom, the majority’s reasoning takes aim at the heart of RFRA (the Religious Freedom Restoration Act) itself."

Said Warsaw: “As we have said repeatedly, contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and voluntary sterilization are not health care and the government should not force EWTN to provide them as part of our employer-sponsored health plan. We are grateful for the prayers and support of the EWTN Family over the course of this litigation, as well as all those who have written in support of our lawsuit and in support of religious liberty. We ask for continued prayers as we consider our response to the Court’s decision.”


EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 35th year, is the largest religious media network in the world. EWTN’s 11 networks broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 264 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories. EWTN services include direct broadcast satellite television and radio; AM & FM radio networks transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 500 domestic and international radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; the largest Catholic website in the U.S.; electronic and print news services, including “The National Catholic Register” newspaper, and two global wire services; as well as a publishing arm.

Getting political with a song...

If you haven't listened to "The Face of the New Democracy" yet its pretty good...

BREAKING: EWTN Granted Relief in HHS Mandate Case

EWTN Granted Injunctive Relief
In HHS Mandate Case

Court of Appeals Acts Following
Supreme Court Hobby Lobby Decision

Irondale, AL – The 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has granted the EWTN Global Catholic Network an injunction preventing the government from enforcing the HHS contraceptive services mandate against the Network. The appeals court released its twenty-nine page order just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case. The injunction allows EWTN to continue its court challenge of the mandate without incurring the fines of $35,000 per day that would have begun on July 1.

“This has been a very good day for religious liberty in America,” said EWTN Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw. “The Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case was a great affirmation of the constitutional right to freedom of religious expression. While the Hobby Lobby decision did not directly resolve EWTN’s case, this afternoon’s injunction from the appellate court allows us to press forward without facing the government’s crushing fines.

“As we have said repeatedly, contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and voluntary sterilization are not health care and the government should not force EWTN to provide them as part of our employer-sponsored health plan.

“The Hobby Lobby decision recognizes that business owners don’t give up their religious freedom when they start a business,” continued Warsaw. “The fact that the Supreme Court believes that the government has an obligation to use the least restrictive means of accomplishing its goals is very helpful to the EWTN case. EWTN has raised similar arguments with regard to the government’s ‘accommodation’ scheme for faith-based organizations. We are both relieved and encouraged by the action taken by the courts today and look forward to making our case before the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals in the coming months.”

EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 33^rd year, is available in over 230 million television households in more than 140 countries and territories. With its direct broadcast satellite television and radio services, AM & FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave radio station, Internet website www.ewtn.com, electronic and print news services, and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world.

BREAKING NEWS: EWTN on Hobby Lobby Case

EWTN Chairman & CEO Michael Warsaw Reacts To Hobby Lobby Decision

Irondale, AL – Statement of Michael P. Warsaw, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EWTN Global Catholic Network on June 30, 2014 US Supreme Court Decision in the Hobby Lobby Case:

 

“EWTN is extremely pleased with today’s Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case.  The fact that the Court believes that the government has less restrictive means of accomplishing it’s goals is very helpful.  However, it remains unclear whether this decision addresses the serious objections that EWTN has raised with regard to the government’s “accommodation” scheme for nonprofit faith-based organizations. We are consulting with our legal team to determine how this significant decision applies to EWTN and our pending case before the courts.”

EWTN Press Release: EWTN Denied Protection Against HHS Mandate

EWTN Denied Protection
Against Contraception Mandate

Network Filing Appeal of US District Court Decision

Irondale, AL – U.S. District Court Judge Callie V.S. Granade of Mobile, Ala. issued an opinion on June 17 denying EWTN Global Catholic Network protection from the government mandate that it must provide coverage of contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization as part of its employee health care coverage.

“We are extremely disappointed with the decision reached by the court in this case,” said EWTN Chairman and CEO Michael P. Warsaw.  “The opinion issued is clearly inconsistent with the decisions reached in nearly all of the cases decided to date.  The fact that the court has dismissed the serious issues of conscience and religious freedom that EWTN has raised is very troubling.”

“As an organization that was founded to uphold the teachings of the Catholic Church, we do not believe that contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and voluntary sterilization should be defined as health care.  We simply cannot facilitate these immoral practices,” said Warsaw.  “We have no other option but to continue our legal challenge of the mandate,” Warsaw continued. “We are making an immediate appeal to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.”

 

EWTN filed its original lawsuit on Feb. 9, 2012 after the government issued the first set of rules for the mandate. That first suit was dismissed on technical grounds by Federal Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn of Birmingham, Ala. on March 25, 2013.  EWTN filed its current lawsuit October 28, 2013 against the Department of Health & Human Services and other federal agencies seeking to stop the government from imposing the HHS contraception mandate and protect EWTN’s constitutional rights.  The State of Alabama, through its Attorney General Luther Strange joined EWTN as a co-plaintiff in the new lawsuit.

 

“Alabama has a proud history of protecting our First Freedom,” said General Strange.  “We have been honored to continue that tradition by standing with EWTN and protecting rights of conscience for all Alabama citizens, and we will continue to support EWTN as it appeals the district court’s disappointing decision.”

 

“This decision is out of step with the overwhelming majority of decisions in similar cases nationwide,” said Lori Windham, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed both lawsuits on EWTN’s behalf. “Over 80% of cases have protected religious objectors from this mandate.”

 

EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 33nd year, is available in over 230 million television households in more than 140 countries and territories. With its direct broadcast satellite television and radio services, AM & FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave radio station, Internet website www.ewtn.com, electronic and print news services, and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world.

 

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. The Becket Fund has a 17-year history of defending religious liberty for people of all faiths. Its attorneys are recognized as experts in the field of church-state law, and won a 9-0 victory against the federal government at the U.S. Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC.

 

EWTN's Michael Warsaw...

Statement of Michael P. Warsaw, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of EWTN Global Catholic Network in response to the January 24, 2014 decision by the US Supreme Court  in the HHS Mandate case brought by the Little Sisters of the Poor:

“It is certainly very encouraging that the U.S. Supreme Court has granted an injunction in the HHS contraceptive mandate case brought by the Little Sisters of the Poor.  This decision to intervene, reached after a full court review, provides welcome relief to the Sisters and encouragement to the other plaintiffs who continue to challenge the mandate.  The fact that organizations like EWTN or the Little Sisters of the Poor are not deemed to be religious enough to qualify for a full exemption from the mandate shows how senseless the government’s rules have become.  Instead, we are faced with the prospect of millions of dollars in fines for refusing to cooperate with the government’s mandate.

Shortly before midnight on New Year’s eve, EWTN and the State of Alabama filed a petition with the US District Court in Mobile, Alabama seeking a summary judgment in our own lawsuit.    While the decision of the Supreme Court in the Little Sisters’ case has no direct impact on the current legal challenge of the mandate by EWTN and the State of Alabama, it is very helpful that the Court has seen fit to intervene in the matter.  We continue to await a decision in our case and remain hopeful that the courts will ultimately provide EWTN with relief from this unjust government action.

We ask our EWTN Family to continue to  keep this matter in your prayers.”

EWTN Press Release: EWTN Files New Law Suit

EWTN Files New Suit
Against Contraception Mandate

State of Alabama Joins as Co-Plaintiff

Irondale, AL – EWTN Global Catholic Network filed a new lawsuit October 28 in Federal Court against the Department of Health & Human Services, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and other federal agencies seeking to stop the government from imposing the HHS contraception mandate as well as asking the court to find that it is unconstitutional. The State of Alabama, through its Attorney General Luther Strange, has joined EWTN as a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit.

“EWTN has no other option but to continue our legal challenge to the mandate,” said EWTN Chairman and CEO Michael P. Warsaw. “The revised rules, published by the government in July, have done nothing to address the serious issues of conscience and religious freedom that EWTN has been raising since the mandate was first published last year.

 The government has decided that EWTN is apparently not religious enough to be exempt from the rule. It has still placed us in a situation where we are forced to offer contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs as part of our employee health plan or to offer our employees and their families no insurance at all. Neither of these options is acceptable. The mission of EWTN is not negotiable.”

EWTN’s original lawsuit opposing the mandate was filed Feb. 9, 2012, but was dismissed by Federal Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn on March 25, 2013. In her order dismissing the original suit, Judge Blackburn noted that the government had promised to implement a new rule addressing the issues raised by EWTN. Blackburn’s opinion stated that “common sense weighs in favor of withholding judicial review until new regulations are created and finalized. At that point, if EWTN still has objections, it may then file suit.”

The Department of Health and Human Services issued a new set of rules on July 23, 2013 which Secretary Sebelius claimed addressed the concerns of EWTN and other similar organizations.

“When the government opened up a period for public comment earlier this year in advance of publishing its revised rules, EWTN submitted extensive remarks and an explanation of its moral objections to the mandate,” Warsaw continued. “We sincerely hoped that our concerns would be addressed. Instead, the government ignored our comments entirely and pressed forward with a rule that changed nothing. We are in the same position today as we were when the mandate was first published.

“As an organization that was founded to uphold the teachings of the Catholic Church, we do not believe that contraception, voluntary sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs constitute health care.  We simply cannot facilitate these immoral practices,” said Warsaw.

“Version 2.0 of the mandate is just as bad as version 1.0,” said Lori Windham, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund, which filed both the original and new lawsuits on EWTN’s behalf. “It would still force the world’s preeminent Catholic network to betray publicly the very teachings it was founded to promote, and which it promotes on a daily basis.”

 

In 2012, shortly after the first EWTN lawsuit was filed, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange petitioned the court to join the EWTN complaint. In this new lawsuit, the State of Alabama has joined EWTN as a co-plaintiff from the start.

Commenting on this new lawsuit, Attorney General Strange said, “I am proud to stand with EWTN to oppose this unconscionable mandate. …
The freedom of religion, and to believe as one sees fit, is our ‘first freedom’ under the United States Constitution. The people of Alabama have recognized the importance of this freedom and have enshrined it in their Constitution as well. Alabama law does not allow anyone to be forced to offer a product that is against his or her religious beliefs or conscience.”

“EWTN is extremely grateful to Attorney General Strange for his support on this important issue. The Attorney General clearly understands what is at stake here, not just for EWTN, but for all people who feel that government cannot take away the right to religious freedom,” said Warsaw.

EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 32nd year, is available in over 230 million television households in more than 140 countries and territories. With its direct broadcast satellite television and radio services, AM & FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave radio station, Internet website www.ewtn.com, electronic and print news services, and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. The Becket Fund has a 17-year history of defending religious liberty for people of all faiths. Its attorneys are recognized as experts in the field of church-state law, and they recently won a 9-0 victory against the federal government at the U.S. Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC.

Something I admire...

Standing up for and fighting for something you believe in...

Loved that he took a few moments to read "Green Eggs and Ham" to his children.

God bless you and strengthen you Sen. Cruz I admire what you are trying to do.

Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner

EWTN Press Release: HHS Mandate Final Rule

EWTN’s Statement On The
Final Rule for the HHS Mandate

Irondale, AL – Today, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a final rule for the contraception mandate portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).  EWTN and its attorneys are still assessing this final rule, but our initial analysis has been disappointing. 

“The final rule issued today is inadequate because it appears to have changed nothing,” said EWTN President & Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw.

Specifically, it imposes the same narrow definition of a church, does not expand the exemption beyond churches, and still provides a meaningless “accommodation.” In short, it appears to have ignored the unprecedented number of public comments made against this HHS Mandate.

The proposed rule released in February of 2013 separated organizations into churches, eligible organizations, and everyone else. Under that proposed rule, religious organizations were fully exempt, eligible organizations received an accommodation, and everyone else was mandated to pay for abortion-causing drugs, contraceptives, and voluntary sterilization procedures. EWTN filed public comments strongly arguing that these services and drugs are not health care, are validly objectionable on grounds other than religious beliefs, and that the rule was faulty for allowing only churches to be fully exempt while leaving organizations like EWTN on shaky ground, unable to reliably determine if it even qualifies as an eligible organization. The proposed rule also failed to show that the “accommodation” provided for eligible organizations did anything to actually accommodate reasonable objection to the mandated services.

Despite this news, we are encouraged by the recent court victories for Tyndale Publishers and Hobby Lobby because these cases demonstrate that the rule unfairly limits religious liberty and first amendment rights. EWTN and its attorneys at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty will continue to assess the options at this time.

Said Warsaw: “EWTN remains committed to fighting this senseless mandate.” 

EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 32^nd year, is available in over 225
million television households in more than 140 countries and territories. With its direct broadcast satellite television and radio services, AM & FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave radio station, Internet website www.ewtn.com, electronic and print news services, and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world.

Homily against Obamacare - Obama's war on Catholics

Fantastic homily by the Archbishop of Kansas (Most Rev. Joseph Naumann) on EWTN.
God bless you for speaking out and telling the TRUTH.  Listen up Catholics!

The website mentioned in the homily:  WomenSpeakForThemselves.com
http://www.womenspeakforthemselves.com/
Tell Obama he does NOT speak for women!  Let them hear YOUR voice!

Our Home-Grown Threat To Freedom

Written by Connecticut Catholic Corner contributor: Tim S.

As of this writing, the Conference of Catholic Bishops has filed a suit in federal court against provisions of the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act which mandate the provision of contraceptive, sterilization, and abortion-inducing measures by people of conscience, including hospitals and other health care facilities run by the Catholic Church. This suit has the support of many non-Catholics as well as Catholics. As Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and an evangelical minister, succinctly put it, "We should all be Catholics now."

Though the specific issue at hand is religious freedom, the matter in fact goes far beyond just that. We should have seen the warning red flags long before the election of 2008. Barack Obama ran on a platform highlighted by such nebulous slogans as, "Hope And Change" and "Change We Can Believe In." Neither of these slogans was specifically defined, and we now know that the omission was intentional. Equally intentional was the withholding of vital information about the candidate Obama, such as where he was born (supposedly Hawaii), his college transcripts, his medical records, and so on. Even more disturbing was the deliberate withholding of information about Obama's radical associations past and present, including numerous members of the Communist Party of the United States of America. The stand of the Catholic Church against communism is one of long standing.

Yet it goes beyond even this. The real culprit here is a growing tide of secularism which has largely overtaken not only the United States, but much of the developed world as well. When did it all begin? I would say it began in 1964, a time when the Catholic Church was at its height in America and the rest of the world as well. For it was in 1964 that we stopped listening to God and started listening to Madalyn Murray, who succeeded in her effort to get prayer banned from the public schools, and would have stricken the motto, "In God We Trust," from our currency.

Shortly after Obama's election there were several disturbing events. One was his instant abandonment of the economy as an issue, turning instead to socialized medicine, a goal long coveted by his political party, the Democrats. Bolstered by Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, Obama was given carte blanche to do what he would with our government, and he wasted no time in exercising that carte blanche. Against the will of the American people, Obama had the Affordable Care and Protection Act, better known as Obamacare, railroaded through a partisan Congress and enacted into law. The insurance mandate of this law, requiring the purchase of health care insurance by all Americans, was ruled constitutional in a 5-4 vote of the Supreme Court, on the grounds that it was a "tax." This and Obama's "stimulus" were instrumental in propelling our national debt to nearly $16 trillion dollars.

Even more disturbing, however, were instances in 2009 of school children being forced by their teachers to sing hymns of praise to Barack Obama. This struck a raw nerve not only with people of most religious faiths, but also with those old enough to remember Nazi Germany who were able to see eerie similarities here. We will recall from the Gospels that when a man knelt before Peter, Peter admonished the man to rise to his feet, gently reminding the supplicant that he (Peter) was only a man himself. Obama, however, made no similar protest at deification, as any of his predecessors certainly would have. On the contrary, by his silence he seemed to be encouraging it. His advocacy of late-term abortions, even to the point of killing infants outside the womb, put him on the fringes even in the minds of those who would permit abortions to victims of rape and incest. His latest moral outrage is in his advocacy of same-sex marriage, in effect redefining the holy sacrament of Matrimony for the entire nation as it has already been redefined here in Connecticut. But note the language used here: Obama and his apologists in the press say that he has "evolved" on the issue of same-sex marriage. Had a Republican done the same thing, it would have been called a flip-flop.

In the meantime, Obama, through federal "bailouts" of the banking, insurance, and automotive industries has, through the purchase of stock at taxpayer expense, in effect taken over substantial portions of those industries. Obamacare, if not repealed, will nationalize roughly one-sixth of the entire U. S. economy. The more astute among us will recognize here a threat to our legacy of freedom, and the looming specter of communism in the very country which for so long during the Cold War fought against that oppressive form of government.

The choice Americans face this November couldn't possibly be more stark. It's a choice between a political party which would preserve our freedom and one which would take that freedom away. It's a choice between a candidate who, while of a different religious persuasion, is nevertheless a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, and one who has permitted the closest thing to emperor worship yet witnessed on American soil. It's a choice between a party which supports the right to life and traditional marriage, and one which stands for abortion -- the willful taking of unborn life -- and whose party platform this year will include a redefinition of marriage to include "marriage" between principals of the same sex. Treating homosexuals with dignity and respect is one thing. It is quite another, however, to sanction homosexual activity and afford it the status of Matrimony.

It couldn't be more obvious which political party represents religious freedom and which represents secularism. Let us the faithful keep this in mind when we enter the voting booths in November.

-Written by Tim S.-
Connecticut Catholic Corner Contributor