[whell]

It was inevitable. Following the HHS decision earlier this year to mandate employer's health plans must contain coverage for birth control, multiple Catholic organizations are filing lawsuits in Federal Courts across the country. The plaintiffs, including Notre Dame, Franciscan University of Steubenville, and dozens of Catholic hospitals and organizations, have filed a total of 12 lawsuits today against Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Obama administration over the controversial HHS mandate.

Closer to my home, the Michigan Catholic Conference said that the mandate violates religious freedom by requiring many religiously affiliated hospitals, schools and charities to comply with a federal mandate to include coverage for birth control in the health insurance plans provided to their employees. The conference says it has provided medical insurance coverage to church workers since the 1970s and currently offers insurance at more than 1,100 Catholic institutions employing around 10,000 people.

I know that this will likely bust a blood vessel in some of our forum participants, but here is a quote from a USA Today article today talking about the Catholic Church's potential arguments:

"Catholic University Law professor Robert Destro argues that the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United recognizes that corporations — including faith-based non-profits and for-profit companies run by individuals of faith — are covered under the rights of free religious and political speech.

Obama's mandate, in any form, is "a shell game" because it still links believers who find contraception immoral to insurers who will provide it free, even without direct participation from the religious person or institution, Destro says."

How much might this legal activity and the surrounding debate jeopardize the "Catholic" vote for Obama, which by size is a pretty large, though not monolithic, voting block?