Trump lets lib. Justice Dept. lawyers continue war on Little Sisters of the Poor

Source: Washington Examiner | April 25, 2017 | Timothy P. Carney

Trump lets liberal Justice Department lawyers continue war on Little Sisters of the Poor

Nearly 100 days into the Trump administration, the official position of the federal government is still that Uncle Sam can force private employers, against their conscience and their religious beliefs, to provide insurance coverage for all forms of contraception, including sterilization and morning-after drugs that can act as abortifacients.

On Monday, the Department of Justice — under the control of Attorney General Jeff Sessions — effectively asked federal courts to keep alive its defense of the Obama position that Christian colleges must provide such coverage. This is irreconcilable with President Trump’s professed opposition to the mandate and its trampling of religious liberty.

Conservative lawyers disagree on how quickly or easily the new administration can undo Obama’s assault on religious liberty. But this is clear: the Trump administration is not where it should be in rolling back its predecessor’s contraceptive offensive.

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Trump’s electoral victory should have resolved the case.

Tom Price is now Secretary of Health and Human Services. His department implements the mandate, and so he is a named defendant in the case. But Price opposes applying the mandate to religious employers. As a Republican congressman, Price actually filed a brief with the court on behalf of such employers. Donald Trump has called the mandate an “onerous mandate” embodying “hostility to religious liberty.”

So why does the contraception mandate still stand? That is the questions conservative lawyers are asking.

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Meanwhile, there’s no adult supervision. Trump has nominated a Solicitor General, Noel Francisco, but he hasn’t been confirmed. Trump hasn’t nominated an assistant attorney general to head the civil division. Also, he hasn’t installed the rank-and-file DOJ lawyers who could take the case out of the hands of the liberal lawyers currently handling it.

With new attorneys in place, Trump’s DOJ could end the assault on religious liberty, dropping the appeals in the cases the Obama administration lost, and possibly drafting a consent decree to disarm the cases where the Obama administration had won.

The new administration has a lot of things on its plate, but that doesn’t excuse letting DOJ lawyers continue, in our government’s name, the persecution of nuns.

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