Excerpts below. See photos and Video at TheBlaze.com.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the consolidated case of Zubik v. Burwell on Wednesday.
Thirty-seven petitioners, including the Little Sisters of the Poor, have asked the Supreme Court to exempt them from the Affordable Care Act’s Health and Human Services mandate that requires them to cover contraceptive and abortifacient drugs in their health insurance plans. The petitioners — comprised of Catholic and evangelical organizations and individuals — argue that providing such drugs would violate their conscience.
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Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) told TheBlaze that it’s essential that Garland is not approved by the Senate.
Huelskamp said that it is unconscionable to ask the Little Sisters of the Poor to violate their faith, and the Obama administration is too eager to do so.
“The Democrat Party has become the party of anti-Catholics,” Huelskamp said. “Attacking the Little Sisters of the Poor, they picked the wrong group to bully.”
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, who was in the court for the oral arguments, told TheBlaze, “I thought it went well,” adding, “I was very pleased.”
Pavone characterized the government’s argument in support of the mandate as “We don’t want to inconvenience people.”
“’We don’t want to inconvenience people?’ Is that how much you regard the weight of religious freedom?” Pavone said.
Pavone is an individual petitioner in the case alongside his organization Priests for Life.