Federal Court Delivers Huge Loss for Trans Agenda, Win for Religious Liberty By C. Douglas Golden
Published January 22, 2021 at 10:24am
In a major victory for religious liberty, a federal court in North Dakota has struck down an Obamacare mandate that required doctors and other health care professionals to perform gender reassignment surgery.
The Tuesday decision, delivered on the day before President Joe Biden began his presidential term, could complicate the new president’s focus on transgender rights.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, Judge Peter D. Welte of the District of North Dakota ruled on the side of two Catholic groups that challenged the Department of Health and Human Services over the rule — Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.
That mandate requires any provider receiving federal funds to not discriminate based on a number of factors, including gender identity.
The Trump administration moved to strike gender identity from Section 1557 in June of 2020, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The same month, however, the Supreme Court ruled that gender identity protected employees from discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and two courts blocked the implementation of the Trump administration’s attempt at repeal.
In Tuesday’s ruling, however, Judge Welte ruled the organizations were entitled to permanent injunctive relief under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.
“The Catholic Plaintiffs have demonstrated an entitlement to permanent injunctive relief. An RFRA [Religious Freedom Restoration Act] violation is comparable to the deprivation of a First Amendment right,” Welte wrote in his opinion regarding the court case.
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Poster Comment:
The ACA may have been defunded, but it was never repealed.