In Renteria v. New Mexico Office of the Superintendent of Insurance, (10th Cir., Feb. 27, 2025), the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, upheld a trial court's refusal to preliminarily enjoin the enforcement of a New Mexico cease and desist order issued by the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance against a Mennonite church's health care sharing ministry. The ministry claimed that the order violated its free exercise rights. The court said in part:
OSI’s enforcement action here was not because of Gospel Light’s religious beliefs, it was because they operated outside of the bounds of the NMIC [New Mexico Insurance Code] that applied to their business activities. In other words, OSI’s asserted interests were to protect New Mexico consumers by regulating the insurance industry, not to burden or regulate religious conduct. That other organizations, not entirely secular and not comparable to Gospel Light, merit partial exemptions under the NMIC does not carry the water for Plaintiffs that the NMIC treats a secular activity more favorably than a comparable religious activity. Consequently, rational-basis review applies.....
OSI sought to enforce the NMIC to protect consumers. The “regulation and licensure of insurance producers” are “important state interests,”... and OSI’s final order, which enforces the NMIC against Gospel Light, is rationally related to the regulation of health insurance. As such, the government action here satisfies rational-basis review, and Plaintiffs have not shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits on their Free Exercise claims....
Judge Carson dissented, saying in part:
State governments must enforce statutes in a neutral and generally applicable manner. In this case, that means the New Mexico Office of the Superintendent of Insurance (“OSI”) cannot regulate Gospel Light Mennonite Church Medical Aid Plan (“Gospel Light”), a religious organization, more stringently than it regulates similarly situated secular organizations like labor unions and fraternal organizations. But the district court reached the opposite conclusion when it allowed the OSI to impose statutory restrictions upon Gospel Light while exempting similarly situated secular organizations. The majority upholds the OSI’s impermissible action. Because the district court’s and the majority’s conclusions run contrary to established Tenth Circuit and Supreme Court precedent precluding discrimination based on religious views, I respectfully dissent.
