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A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that President Barack Obama's health care law unjustly burdens religiously affiliated employers by forcing them to help provide insurance coverage for certain contraceptives, even though they can opt out of directly paying for it. The ruling by a three-judge 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in St. Louis upheld lower court decisions that sided with plaintiffs who included three Christian colleges in Missouri, Michigan and Iowa. (9/17)

Opponents of a compromise arrangement for providing birth-control coverage to workers at religiously affiliated employers won their first major federal-appeals-court victory Thursday, increasing the chance the contentious issue could find its way back to the Supreme Court. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis said the Obama administration didn’t go far enough to accommodate employers with religious objections when creating an alternative system to cover contraception for their workers. (Radnofsky and Kendall, 9/17)

The decision was at odds with that of every other appeals court that has considered the issue. Those courts have said the government’s compromise was adequate. Such splits among the courts usually compel the Supreme Court to settle the issue. (Barnes, 9/17)

Religious groups needn’t obey the Affordable Care Act mandate to provide workers with health insurance that covers contraception and can’t be forced to tell the government when they don’t, according to an appeal ruling that pushes the fight toward the U.S. Supreme Court. Deciding two cases Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis agreed with nonprofit groups that providing birth-control coverage burdens their right to free exercise of religion. The court also rejected the opt-out requirement for religious nonprofits. (Hanna and Harris, 9/17)

A U.S. appeals court has ruled that President Barack Obama's healthcare law violates the rights of religiously affiliated employers by forcing them to help provide contraceptive coverage even though they do not have to pay for it. Parting ways with all other appeals courts that have considered the issue, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis on Thursday issued a pair of decisions upholding orders by two lower courts barring the government from enforcing the law's contraceptive provisions against a group of religiously affiliated employers. (Pierson, 9/17)

A private, faith-based Michigan university doesn’t have to offer contraceptive insurance coverage to its employees, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. Cornerstone University, based in Grand Rapids, had challenged the so-called contraceptive mandate in federal court along with Dordt College, a small religious school in Iowa. The decision by the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a lower court decision in favor of the two schools, which sued the federal government over the mandate from the Obama administration. (Jesse, 9/17)