Free Exercise Challenge To Health Care Reform Law Dismissed In April Decision

Calvey v. Obama, (WD OK, April 26, 2011), while decided two months ago, has just now appeared on LEXIS and has received little general attention.  It is a decision on standing and ripeness of challenges by numerous plaintiffs in an Oklahoma federal district court to the constitutionality of last year's federal health care reform act. In dismissing some, but not all, of the claims, the court rejected a free exercise claim by plaintiffs who argued that the Affordable Care Act forces them to contribute to the funding of abortion in violation of their rights of conscience and free exercise of religion. The court wrote:

Plaintiffs have failed to identify a provision of the ACA that requires them to contribute to the funding of abortion, much less identified a provision of the ACA that requires them to purchase health insurance from an insurer that provides insurance coverage for abortions and/or that any part of the premiums the Plaintiffs will pay for health care insurance will necessarily be used, at least in part, to pay for abortions. Absent such allegations, Plaintiffs have failed to allege a future or threatened injury that is concrete and not conjectural or hypothetical or one which is fairly traceable to the ACA or the actions of the Defendants.