Court Reconsiders Ripeness Holding In Affordable Care Act Case

In March, a Pennsylvania federal district court dismissed on ripeness grounds a challenge to the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage mandate brought by the religiously-sponsored Geneva College. (See prior posting.) Now, however, in Geneva College v. Sebelius, (WD PA, May 8, 2013) the court has granted Geneva College's motion for reconsideration and decided the case is ripe because of the short time frame it has to negotiate the terms of student health insurance plans for the coming academic year. The court said:

Geneva’s ability to negotiate is fundamentally impacted by the final rules and the proposed rules, none of which alleviate its religious objections to the mandate. Geneva cannot, therefore, simply carry on as though nothing will happen.

Then the court went on to deny the government's motion to dismiss free exercise, RFRA and Administrative Procedure Act claims, but did dismiss without prejudice Establishment Clause and free speech claims. It dismissed with prejudice plaintiffs' due process claims. In making these rulings the court relied largely on its opinion in March relating to claims of a private business and its owners, all of whom were co-plaintiffs with Geneva College. IFA Webnews reported yesterday on the decision.