Enforcement of Affordable Care Act – Declaratory Relief

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Timothy Ozinga, et al v. Thomas E. Price

Case No.: 15-3648

Officials: EASTERBROOK, ROVNER, and SYKES, Circuit Judges

Focus: Enforcement of Affordable Care Act – Declaratory Relief

Ozinga Brothers, Inc. (“Ozinga Brothers”) is a family-owned firm supplying ready-mix concrete products and services to builders primarily in the Chicago metropolitan area. The company, along with its owners and senior managers (collectively, “Ozinga”) filed this suit in 2013, challenging the so-called contraception mandate emanating from the Patient Protection and Affordable CareAct of 2010 (the “Affordable Care Act”), 124 Stat. 119 (Mar. 23, 2010). The mandate is embodied in federal regulations implementing a requirement of the Affordable Care Act that nonexempt and non-grandfathered group health plans provide specified preventative-health services to plan participants without cost-sharing; among those services are contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration. See 42 U.S.C. § 300gg-13(a)(4); 45 C.F.R. § 147.130(a)(1)(iv); 29 C.F.R. § 2590.715-2713(a)(1)(iv); 26 C.F.R. § 54.9815-2713(a)(1)(iv); http://hrsa.gov/womensguidelines2016/index.html (women’s preventative service guidelines) (visited April 26, 2017). Employers who refuse to provide such services are subject to substantial fines. See 26 U.S.C. § 4980H. Ozinga regards certain of the contraceptives covered by the mandate as potential abortifacients, the use of which is proscribed by the firm owners’ and managers’ religious tenets. Invoking the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb, et seq., among other statutory and constitutional provisions, Ozinga sought declaratory and injunctive relief barring the enforcement of the mandate.

Vacate and Remand

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.