May 22, 2012
In the Media
Dem-backed law could be downfall of Obama's birth-control
mandate
By Elise Viebeck
The Hill
May 22, 2012
“I think the odds are pretty good for the plaintiffs here,” Marc
DeGirolami, an assistant law professor at St. John’s University,
told The Hill.
Because of the law, courts now have to apply certain standards
to federal actions that might inadvertently infringe on religious
liberty. In one sense, laws under scrutiny must aim to achieve a
“compelling” government interest. In another sense, they must be
designed in a way that burdens religion as little as
possible.
The second claim might be hard for the administration to meet
when regulators could have taken many other steps — like expanding
Medicaid — to provide better access to birth control, DeGirolami
said.
“Even if one concedes that the state has a ‘compelling interest’
in ensuring that all women have free access to contraception,” he
said, “there are many, many less restrictive means of achieving
that interest.”