Cornerstone University Files Lawsuit Against Federal Mandate
Grand Rapids, Michigan (PRWEB) October 24, 2013 -- Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against the Obama administration Wednesday on behalf of two Christian colleges: Dordt College in Iowa and Cornerstone University in Michigan. The case was filed in the Northern District of Iowa Western Division.
"This filing is first and foremost an effort to preserve and protect our religious freedom as guaranteed by the First Amendment,” said Dr. Joe Stowell, president of Cornerstone University. “Given our conviction that life begins at conception and our commitment to the sanctity of life, we find the mandate to provide our faculty, staff, and students with insurance that provides access to abortion-inducing prescriptions unacceptable. In our view, the government should not be able to force us to buy or provide insurance that gives access to objectionable drugs, devices, and services that violate our institutional convictions."
The lawsuit is the latest challenge to the administration’s mandate that forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions and under threat of heavy penalties, to provide insurance coverage for pills and procedures that many Christians oppose. The two colleges also object to the government’s claim that they are not sufficiently religious institutions with their own fundamental right to religious freedom.
“Christian colleges should remain free to operate according to their defining beliefs,” said Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor. “Under this mandate, religious employers have no real choice: they must either comply and abandon their religious freedom, or resist and be taxed for their faith. If the government can force Christian colleges to act contrary to their deeply-held religious convictions, then the government can do just about anything. The government should not coerce any American in this manner.”
The new lawsuit, Dordt College v. Sebelius, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, Western Division, argues that the mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as well as the First and Fifth amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
“With full knowledge that many religious organizations hold the same or similar beliefs, the Defendants issued regulations that…trample on the freedom of the Schools and millions of other American organizations and individuals to abide by their religious convictions and comply with moral imperatives they believe are decreed by God Himself,” the lawsuit states, adding that the mandate “illegally and unconstitutionally coerces the Schools to violate” those imperatives “under threat of heavy fines and penalties.”
The lawsuit also points out that “the government has provided thousands of exemptions…for various groups, such as large corporations, but refuses to exempt most religious groups from this unprecedented Mandate. Moreover, the Mandate does not apply to countless ‘grandfathered’ employer group health plans, through which millions of American women receive health insurance coverage, belying any contention that the Mandate advances some compelling government interest.”
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys and allied attorneys are also litigating 14 other lawsuits against the mandate. The lawsuits represent a large cross-section of Protestants and Catholics who object to the mandate.
The complaint was filed as C13-4100.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
Contact media and public relations at (480) 444.0020.
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Kelli Cottrell, Cornerstone University, http://www.cornerstone.edu, +1 (616) 634-4892, [email protected]
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