The Guttmacher Institute and Professor Sara Rosenbaum (GWU), as amici curiae in support of the government, have filed a brief in the Hobby Lobby case. Lead attorneys for the amici are Walter Dellinger and colleagues at O’Melveny & Meyers LLP, with co-counsel Professor Dawn Johnsen (Indiana).
The specific issue in the case is whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 allows a for-profit corporation to deny its employees the health coverage of contraceptives to which the employees are otherwise entitled by federal law, based on the religious objections of the corporation’s owners.
The amici argue that “effective family planning yields enormous societal benefits for American women, children, and families, and that the contraceptive-coverage provision at issue in this case is crucial to achieving those benefits.”
The brief is an extraordinary, stunningly researched and comprehensive Brandeis-type brief that deserves widespread attention. A copy is available here.
-Bridget Crawford
