Religious liberty and pluralism are democratic principles that sometimes clash and that our nation must balance. We think that a federal district court in Fort Worth got that balance wrong and imperiled health care access with its recent ruling in Braidwood Management v. Becerra. In that case, the court found that a federal mandate to cover preventive HIV medication violates employers’ religious freedoms.
The decision follows a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, in which the high court sided with employers who objected to offering contraceptives through their health plans because of religious beliefs. At the time, we expressed concerns that the Supreme Court was extending religious exemptions to nonreligious, for-profit companies that could then impose their leaders’ religious views on employees.
We warned then that the Hobby Lobby case set a dangerous precedent with consequences for both secular and religious freedoms, and we see that playing out before us now.
