Following years of litigation over the Obama-era contraception mandate which compelled employers to participate in the provision of contraceptives for their employees, Little Sisters of the Poor had at least a partial victory at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.
 
In a 7-2 decision, the Court’s majority sided with the sisters in the latest round of lawsuits against them, this time brought by the states of Pennsylvania and California, who argued that the exemption crafted by the Trump administration for organizations with religious or moral objections to the mandate shifted the cost of providing contraceptive coverage to the states and was procedurally flawed.
 
Justice Clarence Thomas, who authored the majority opinion, stated, "We hold today that the Departments had the statutory authority to craft that exemption, as well as the contemporaneously issued moral exemption," Thomas continued. "We further hold that the rules promulgating these exemptions are free from procedural defects."
 
However, the case was remanded to the trial court. The states are expected to now argue that the rule itself is arbitrary and capricious. And, of course, if the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act is ever repealed, the Sisters will have no protection if a Democratic President revokes the exemption Trump created. 
 
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