A federal judge has reignited a deeply divisive legal battle by stripping the Little Sisters of the Poor of religious exemptions to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate.
Breitbart reported that this decision overturns prior protections for the Catholic ministry, despite multiple Supreme Court rulings in their favor, and puts them back at square one in a fight that has already spanned more than a decade.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled against the Little Sisters on Wednesday, backing a lawsuit brought by New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The order invalidated Trump-era provisions allowing religious groups to opt out of providing birth control coverage.
Judge Wendy Beetlestone, appointed during the Obama administration, determined that the federally issued religious exemptions were "arbitrary and capricious" and violated procedural guidelines under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Her decision effectively nullified those exemptions entirely, even though they were a direct response to a previous Supreme Court call for religious accommodations. It’s one thing to disagree with a ruling, but vacating a protection "in its entirety" without a hearing? That’s something else.
This latest ruling comes in a case formally titled Pennsylvania v. Trump. Despite the name, the real target seems clear—and it isn’t a former president, but a group of Catholic nuns caring for the elderly.
In 2016 and again in 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Little Sisters. Yet Pennsylvania and New Jersey persisted, navigating around the justices by pressing new legal angles in the lower courts.
These lawsuits claim that the Trump administration failed to check all the right regulatory boxes, using a bureaucratic technicality to bring back a mandate the high court had already rebuked.
Mark Rienzi, lead attorney for the Little Sisters, didn’t mince words. He called the court’s move to strike down national conscience rules “bad enough,” but said the real kicker was the judge not even holding a hearing after five years of litigation.
“It is absurd,” Rienzi continued, “to think the Little Sisters might need yet another trip to the Supreme Court just to avoid funding contraceptives they morally oppose. He added that his team would “fight as far as we need to fight” to shield their mission from government overreach.
The Little Sisters, a Catholic order ministering to the elderly poor, have now endured more than 12 years of courtroom crossfire—all because they want to serve without compromising their deeply held faith.
Mother Loraine Marie Maguire spoke plainly: “We will continue to fight for the right to carry out our mission without violating our faith.” A simple defense of religious liberty is suddenly seen as controversial.
The original contraception rule—crafted by the Obama-era Department of Health and Human Services—offered no carve-out for religious groups, lumping faith-based employers in with large corporations if they share the same values.
In response to a 2016 high court ruling favoring the Little Sisters, President Trump’s administration issued religious exemptions in 2017. More than a dozen states promptly sued to block those rules.
What’s particularly stunning is that one unelected judge can overturn nationally applicable religious conscience protections—policies that went through federal channels and had Supreme Court backing.
So much for respecting precedent. Judge Beetlestone’s sweeping opinion now risks making faith-based charities choose between their mission and their beliefs.
While state officials in blue states cheer the ruling, the only ones truly paying the price are groups like the Little Sisters, who simply want to care for the elderly without violating their moral principles.
The Little Sisters have already signaled they intend to appeal, potentially bringing the case back to a Supreme Court that has twice sided with them. Whether they get a third round may well shape how seriously courts take religious freedom in the wake of bureaucratic activism.
For now, the ruling leaves a grim message: protections can vanish overnight if the right appointee holds the gavel. The Constitution guarantees religious liberty, but apparently, some judges didn’t get the memo.