Cert. Petition Filed By Corporations In D.C. Circuit Contraceptive Mandate Case

A petition for certiorari (full text) was filed yesterday in Gilardi v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (filed 11/6/2013).  In the case, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Catholic owners of a for-profit small business were likely to succeed on the merits of a RFRA challenge to the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage mandate, but rejected the claims of the business corporations. (See prior posting.) The petition, filed on behalf of the corporations, urges the Court to find that secular business corporations can assert their own free exercise rights.  The American Center for Law & Justice issued a press release announcing the filing of the cert. petition.