Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-431_5i36.pdf
Page Number: 63.0

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

7 

GINSBURG, J., dissenting 

care, and receipt of preventive services.”  Brief for 186 Mem-
bers of Congress 21. 

C 

Religious employers, including petitioner Little Sisters of 
the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home (Little Sisters), none-
theless urge that the self-certification accommodation ren-
ders them “complicit in providing [contraceptive] coverage
to which they sincerely object.”  Brief for Little Sisters 35. 
In 2017, responsive to the pleas of such employers, the Gov-
ernment  abandoned  its  effort  to  both  end  discrimination 
against  employed  women  in  access  to  preventive  services
and  accommodate  religious  exercise.    Under  new  rules 
drafted not by HRSA, but by the IRS, EBSA, and CMS, any 
“non-governmental employer”—even a publicly traded for-
profit company—can avail itself of the religious exemption
previously  reserved  for  houses  of  worship.    82  Fed.  Reg.
45  CFR 
47792 
§147.132(a)(1)(i)(E) (2018).9  More than 2.9 million Ameri-
cans—including  approximately  580,000  women 
of 
childbearing age—receive insurance through organizations 
newly  eligible  for  this  blanket  exemption.  83  Fed.  Reg.
57577–57578 (2018).  Of cardinal significance, the exemp-
tion contains no alternative mechanism to ensure affected 
women’s continued access to contraceptive coverage.  See 45 
CFR §147.132.

(interim 

(2017) 

rule); 

final 

Pennsylvania and New Jersey, respondents here, sued to
enjoin the exemption.  Their lawsuit posed this core ques-
tion:  May  the  Government  jettison  an  arrangement  that
promotes women workers’ well-being while accommodating 
employers’  religious  tenets  and,  instead,  defer  entirely  to 

—————— 

9 Nonprofit  and  closely  held  for-profit  organizations  with  “sincerely 
held moral convictions” against contraception also qualify for the exemp-
tion.  45 CFR §147.133(a)(1)(i), (a)(2).  Unless otherwise noted, this opin-
ion refers to the religious and moral exemptions together as “the exemp-
tion” or “the blanket exemption.”