The First Amendment also does not exempt religious entities or individuals claiming a sincere religious objection from neutral laws of general applicability, a category the new contraception rule plainly fits.
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Blunt drew headlines last week when the Senate voted 51to4848 to kill his amendment, which would have nullified a provision in President Barack Obama's new contraception rule enabling employers to opt out of covering any health care services on "moral grounds".
At a Congressional hearing in mid-February on the Obama administration's new contraception rules, Ms. Fluke testified that birth control can cost women up to $3,000 over the course of law school.
Blunt has been best known in recent weeks for sponsoring an amendment that would have overridden the Obama administration's new contraception coverage rule and allowed any employer to refuse to cover any kind of health care service by citing "moral reasons".
The law firm, which describes itself as "dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions," filed lawsuits after the Obama administration's January announcement about new contraception rules on behalf of Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, Colorado Christian University and Eternal Word Television Network, a Catholic TV and radio station.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania had this to say about the new contraception mandate, which goes into effect today.
At this point, most of the research and development for new contraception is performed by nonprofit companies and by government agencies.
When David Axelrod signaled that the Obama administration might be open to "compromise" on its new contraception policy, I started to worry.
UPDATE: 1 00 p.m. -- The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit law firm that recently filed three lawsuits on behalf of Catholic institutions against the new contraception rules, has come out against the the administration's compromise.
