Notre Dame files Lawsuit against Kathleen Sebelius, DHSS & Timothy Geithner, US Treasury, Dept. Labo

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME,
Plaintiff,
v.
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, in her official
capacity as Secretary of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human
Services; HILDA SOLIS, in her official
capacity as Secretary of the U.S.
Department of Labor, TIMOTHY
GEITHNER, in his official capacity as
Secretary of the U.S. Department of
Treasury; U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES;
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR; and
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY.
Defendants.
))))))))))))))))))))))))))
CASE No.:
COMPLAINT

1. 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. Those services are, and will
continue to be, freely available in the United States, and nothing prevents the Government itself
from making them more widely available. But the right to such services does not authorize the
Government to force the University of Notre Dame (“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.

opac.nd.edu...

This lawsuit is the first of many which will be filed against the Department of Human Services, and other US agencies which many believe have exceeded their authority, and violated the US Constitution by exceeding their authority, and forcing agencies and institutions to violate their religious beliefs.

It will be interesting to see what happens in this US District Court case.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus


If they don't like it, then the government should revoke their tax-exempt status!

No one gets a free ride!

reply to post by The Sword


The tax exempt status has NOTHING to do with the fact that the government has violated the Constitution. Either address the issue, which is the violation of the Constitution, or go to some other thread, where you can bash religions.

Originally posted by ProfEmeritus
reply to post by The Sword

 

The tax exempt status has NOTHING to do with the fact that the government has violated the Constitution. Either address the issue, which is the violation of the Constitution, or go to some other thread, where you can bash religions.

Where has the government violated the constitution? These people are still able to freely practice their religion. Now the question should be why are religions allowed to strip people of their right to the freedom of choice?

And The Sword is right if religions want to be involved in politics then they should lose their tax free status.

Originally posted by buster2010

Originally posted by ProfEmeritus
reply to post by The Sword

 

The tax exempt status has NOTHING to do with the fact that the government has violated the Constitution. Either address the issue, which is the violation of the Constitution, or go to some other thread, where you can bash religions.

Where has the government violated the constitution? These people are still able to freely practice their religion. Now the question should be why are religions allowed to strip people of their right to the freedom of choice?

And The Sword is right if religions want to be involved in politics then they should lose their tax free status.

Why shouldn't they be allowed to express an opinion?, everyone else can, having a voice and making it heard has nothing to do with you or the government, it certainly has nothing to do with "Tax Exemption".

Sit down, shut up, or, you lose possibly millions a year in exemptions, see that sounds draconian and dumb.
I see why it sounds good to some americans now i said that. /honesty.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus

This lawsuit is the first of many which will be filed against the Department of Human Services, and other US agencies which many believe have exceeded their authority, and violated the US Constitution by exceeding their authority, and forcing agencies and institutions to violate their religious beliefs.

What, do you mean from these guys?



Man that school loves it's Jesus

It took me a second to get to the good stuff...

27 A. The U.S. Government Mandate Violates Notre Dame’s Religious Beliefs


137. Faith is at the heart of Notre Dame’s educational mission. In accordance with the apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, which governs and defines the role of Catholic colleges and universities, Notre Dame embraces the richness of the Catholic intellectual tradition, “consecrat[ing] itself without reserve to the cause of truth.” It aims to provide a forum where, through free inquiry and open discussion, the various lines of Catholic thought may intersect with the arts, sciences, and every other area of human scholarship.

138. In accordance with the apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Notre Dame believes and teaches that “besides the teaching, research and services common to all Universities,” it must “bring[] to its task the inspiration and light of the Christian message.” “Catholic teaching and discipline are to influence all university activities,” and “[a]ny official action or commitment of the University [must] be in accord with its Catholic identity.” “In a word, being both a University and Catholic, it must be both a community of scholars representing various branches of human knowledge, and an academic institution in which Catholicism is vitally present and operative.”
139. The Catholic Church’s well-established religious beliefs are articulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. One of the central tenets of the Catholic faith is belief in the sanctity of human life and the dignity of all persons. Thus, the Church believes that the “dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God.” Catechism of the Catholic Church ¶ 1700.

Wow, this is huge. I hope the US government has a watershed moment here.

They are basically telling a Catholic institution to do what the law says and not what their religion mandates. We have fought hard to separate church and state, and now the state wants to rape the church......not cool.

RELIGOUSE FREEDOM!!!!!! You bastards! Butt out and stop interfering in every facet of our lives.

Can someone explain this from the HHS ?

The Departments of Health and Human Services published a statement
Friday March 16, 2012.

The release mentions that women's health care
preventive services including contraceptives and sterilizations
will be without cost sharing.

And it looks like non-profit religious organizations may not be forced to
participate (including pay for) based on religious grounds.

Perhaps all the recent objections and some lawsuits have changed their minds ?

A final rule on governing student health plans was also released ...
Students gain the same consumer protections as employees of colleges and universities.


Official HHS News Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16, 2012

Administration releases Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on preventive services policy

Officials at the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury today took the next step in the Obama administration’s effort to ensure women access to recommended preventive services while respecting religious liberty. The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued today outlines draft proposals to implement the policy announced by President Barack Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Feb. 10, 2012. This policy will provide women with access to recommended preventive services including contraceptives without cost sharing, while ensuring that non-profit religious organizations are not forced to pay for, provide, or facilitate the provision of any contraceptive service they object to on religious grounds. The Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued today gives all Americans the chance to formally comment on ideas for implementing this policy.

Administration officials also released a final rule governing student health plans. Under the final rule, students will gain the same consumer protections other people with individual market insurance have, like a prohibition on lifetime limits and coverage of preventive services without cost sharing. In the same way that religious colleges and universities will not have to pay, arrange or refer for contraceptive coverage for their employees, they will not have to do so for their students who will get such coverage directly and separately from their insurer.

“The President’s policy respects religious liberty and makes free preventive services available to women,” said Secretary Sebelius. “Today’s announcement is the next step toward fulfilling that commitment.”

Today’s Federal Register advance notice concerning women’s preventive services calls for a 90-day public comment period. The departments will also hold listening sessions.

The advance notice of proposed rulemaking on women’s preventive services and the student health plan final rule is available in the Federal Register at
www.federalregister.gov...

For more information on women’s preventive services, visit:
www.healthcare.gov...

For more information on the student health plan final rule, visit:
www.healthcare.gov...

HHS News release

Originally posted by The X

Originally posted by buster2010

Originally posted by ProfEmeritus
reply to post by The Sword

 

The tax exempt status has NOTHING to do with the fact that the government has violated the Constitution. Either address the issue, which is the violation of the Constitution, or go to some other thread, where you can bash religions.

Where has the government violated the constitution? These people are still able to freely practice their religion. Now the question should be why are religions allowed to strip people of their right to the freedom of choice?

And The Sword is right if religions want to be involved in politics then they should lose their tax free status.

Why shouldn't they be allowed to express an opinion?, everyone else can, having a voice and making it heard has nothing to do with you or the government, it certainly has nothing to do with "Tax Exemption".

Sit down, shut up, or, you lose possibly millions a year in exemptions, see that sounds draconian and dumb.
I see why it sounds good to some americans now i said that. /honesty.

Why shouldn't they be able to have a voice? Because the founding fathers knew just how damaging religion can and could be. When the preist is preaching to his audiance he is a representative of the church not himself. It also helps if you were to understand there is supposed to be no national religion here in the states which is what would happen if religion had a political voice.

Originally posted by The Sword
reply to post by ProfEmeritus

 

If they don't like it, then the government should revoke their tax-exempt status!

No one gets a free ride!

That is contradictory. They are tax-exempt because they are a religious entity, and they are fighting this on purely religious and constitutional grounds. If the government responded as you are suggesting, it would be pure and blatant retaliation and dig the government in an even deeper hole! Plus, they are asking for exactly the opposite of a free ride. They are asking to be excluded from this cumbersome legislation that is removing healthcare for millions at the moment and will be overturned next year anyway. Something like 400,000 people in Florida are now without healthcare as a direct result of the legislation. Companies which used to proved affordable policies cannot meet the new guidelines, but they can find exemptions and loopholes, so they are just no longer offering healthcare.

It's a bad law, and regardless of your views of religious institutions, it is nice to have them on the right side of this fight.

what's the difference between notre dame, and your typical christian who is running a business??
so, notre dame has a problem with birth control so, well, they can be exempt from the law...
well, the business man has the same belief, but he isn't exempt???

and then you have your business men and churches that are johova witness, and well they have a problem with blood transfusions, so I guess it must be perfectly acceptable for them to just decide that the insurance that they provide to their employees don't include any coverage for that....

there is something fundamentally wrong here! The whole danged obamacare package should just be struck down! you can't pick and chose who has to follow the laws, who don't, or there really isn't any law!

As a catholic, really guys??? Let's include a line about lube for the altar boys and call it even. Seem fair?

No one is saying you cannot practice your lie, you're just required to provide a specific medical coverage/option and it is up to the folks to whom you're providing coverage to decide what they will and won't utilize. See you can't force your beliefs upon your employees, so shut your yap because the credibility of catholicism is a bit on the LOW side with the child raping, the various times of persecution of other religions, and the exploitation of the poor.

Again no one is saying you cannot practice the lie so go put put the robes on, say the latin voodoo lines, and get all cannibal with the body of the zombie.

Derek

The HHS mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 and we can clearly go beyond that statute to argue that the HHS mandate violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Go a little deeper and we dive into the realm "rights of Conscience". Anyone familiar with the term conscientious objection...??

Time for the courts to do there work and time for the case to be made. Should be interesting.... Bring it on Sebelius!!

I just hope that if companies are allowed to start denying people birth control, we'll have atheist companies popping up that are allowed to refuse to hire insane Christians who want to impose their views on others. One of the questions at an interview for a phamacy should be "would you be willing to sell the birth control we offer". Because if not, then you're unwilling to do your job.

Freedom of religion also should include freedom from religion.
If someone isn't catholic and works for the school.
Shouldn't they be allowed those benefits if they worship for example the flying spaghetti monster?
I know I'm being silly but insert your own religion that doesn't deny their practitioners abortion.

Wouldn't the same school that's asking for their rights be denying the rights of others.
Violating someone elses 4th amendment.

43 entities and growing all filing lawsuits against the Administration and the MSM is absolutely SILENT!!

ABC’s World News and NBC’s Nightly News refused to report news of the 43 Catholic dioceses and organizations suing the Obama administration. What could have been more newsworthy than this? NBC Nightly News devoted an entire story to a lunar eclipse; ABC led their evening broadcast and devoted an incredible three minutes and 30 seconds to the sentencing of the Rutgers student who spied on his gay roommate with a web camera.

CBS gets a for giving this story a whopping 19 seconds!!

This is the worst bias by omission I have seen in the quarter century history of the Media Research Center. Every American knows about the Chinese communists withholding for 20 years the news that the US had landed on the moon, because it reflected poorly on the government. Our US media today are no different. They are now withholding news from the American people if it is harmful to the re-election of Barack Obama.

This is not a mistake, nor is it an editorial oversight by the broadcast networks. This is a deliberate and insidious withholding of national news to protect the "Chosen One" who ABC, CBS and NBC have worked so hard to elect and are now abusing their journalistic influence to reelect. And when a network like CBS mentions the suit ever-so-briefly, they deliberately distort the issue by framing it as a contraception lawsuit instead of what they know it to be: a religious freedom issue. It’s bogus, dishonest – a flat out lie.

!!!!

The fact is that the Catholic Church has unleashed legal Armageddon on the administration, promising ‘we will not comply’ with a health law that strips Catholics of their religious liberty. If this isn't "news" then there's no such thing as news.

cnsnews.com...

I bet the press knows what Obama had for lunch yesterday...

These people are still able to freely practice their religion.

reply to post by buster2010

Obviously, you do not understand the issue. Since practicing Catholics are being FORCED to pay for "healthcare" that they believe is sinful, it violates their freedom of religion.
Can't you understand that?
What if the government told an Orthodox Jewish institution that they MUST serve pork in their home for Jewish seniors? Don't you get it?
Tax exempt status has NOTHING to do with this issue.
Imagine the government telling Muslims that they MUST pay for something that violates their beliefs. the uproar would be so loud, you could hear it around the world.

what's the difference between notre dame, and your typical christian who is running a business?? so, notre dame has a problem with birth control so, well, they can be exempt from the law... well, the business man has the same belief, but he isn't exempt???

reply to post by dawnstar

There is NO difference. I believe that this edict is unconstitutional for ALL, not just Catholics, or institutions.
The government opened the door, when they granted conscientious objectors to right the refuse to fight in wars.
It's unfortunate that so many fail to see how the Bill of Rights are being negated one by one.
If the Supreme Court does its job, and rules based upon the Constitution, this entire 2700 page disaster, put together by lobbyists, HealthCare Insurers and unions, is ruled Unconstitutional.
In plain English, the government has no right to FORCE people to buy anything. Period.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus


the bill or rights was nagated when they started taking money from some people (who may not have the funds for their own healthcare) so that others could get the healthcare which enabled the healthcare costs to get out of control. everything past that point is a direct result of that one!!!
but, well
first....I believe that every women should have the right to do whatever she can legally to control the number of children she has...
second....even without obamacare, if an insurance plan has coverage for birth control, well, is it infringing on the rights of the individuals who don't believe in birth control who are taking part in the plan??
third....if a doctor tells a women that if she gets preganant there's a good chance she will die, wouldn't you consider her getting the birth control a little more important that someone with a borderline cholosterol level getting drugs to keep it under control??

if I am understanding things right, obamacare makes it mandatory that the insurance coverages cover birth control...
which, I agree with, why should that women who will die if she doesn't get it have to pay out of pocket while the guy with the questionable cholostoral level doesn't??

either way, someone's rights are stepped on!!!

so, how do we avoid stepping on the rights of the people???

INDEPENDANCE!!!
make it so that a very high percentage of the population can afford their medical care without the gov't help or insurance companies!! that is the only way!!! bring down the cost of the care, and raise up the wages of the people!

some are just trying to pick and chose whose rights should be stepped on, and who's shouldn't be!

the main problem is that the cost of living has gone above the earning potential of way too many people. and dependance will always result in servitude, which is where we are at now!

The thought that religious dogma trumps democratic process is perhaps the most horrendous thing that can happen in responsible governance.

GWB s god driven war in Iraq and then No wmds is a good example
but hay everywhere should look like Iraq

and eventually it will

Thank God It is Up to the Faithful to Build an Electric Fence and Kill Gay People

www.abovetopsecret.com...

can't wait till Obama's gay marriage is Ok thingy comes up