Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany v. Serio
New York Court of Appeals
859 N.E.2d 459 (2006)
- Written by Deanna Curl, JD
Facts
In 2002, the New York legislature enacted the Women’s Health and Wellness Act (WHWA). In an effort to improve women’s healthcare coverage, the WHWA mandated health-insurance coverage for specified women’s medical procedures and required employer health-insurance contracts to include coverage for the cost of contraceptive drugs and devices. The WHWA contained an exemption that allowed religious employers to request an insurance contract without coverage for contraceptives if contraceptive use violated the employer’s religious tenets. A group of religious organizations that employed people of many faiths (the religious employers) (plaintiffs) that objected to contraceptive use on religious grounds but did not qualify for a WHWA exemption challenged the constitutionality of the contraceptive provisions as applied to their organizations under the free-exercise clause of the New York Constitution.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Smith, J.)
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