The Zubik v. Burwell Oral Argument

Photo: Zubik v. Burwell Signs
Tim Ritz / Americans United for Separation of Church and State

By Gregory M. Lipper

Over at Rewire, I’ve analyzed yesterday’s oral argument in Zubik v. Burwell. Among other things, I address the recurring claim that the government was “hijacking” religious objectors’ health plans by arranging for third party insurers and plan administrators to provide contraceptive coverage to affected women:

The fear of hijacking might have made sense if we were talking about a plane instead of a plan. But an insurance company is not an employer’s personal property. If the insurance company, separately from the employer, wants to provide extra coverage to the employees, that’s none of the employer’s business—especially since that contraceptive coverage is guaranteed to women by federal law. At the argument, Clement compared the accommodation to the government running a contraception clinic out of the Little Sisters’ home, but the more apt analogy is that the government has set up shop across the street: The challengers simply have no legitimate interest in preventing the government from “hijacking” a nearby vacant lot.

You can read the full article at Rewire’s freshly redesigned website. And more on the “hijacking” argument here.

Greg Lipper (@theglipper) is Senior Litigation Counsel at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

TOMORROW, 3/25 in NYC! Book Talk & Panel: FDA in the 21st Century – The Challenges of Regulating Drugs and New Technologies

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FDA in the 21st Century:
The Challenges of Regulating Drugs and New Technologies

March 25, 2016 12:00 PM

92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Ave. (at 92nd St.), New York, NY

Join co-editors Holly Fernandez Lynch (Petrie-Flom Executive Director) and I. Glenn Cohen (Petrie-Flom Faculty Director) and contributor Lewis Grossman (American University) for a discussion of FDA in the 21st Century: The Challenges of Regulating Drugs and New Technologies (Columbia University Press, 2015). This volume stems from the Center’s 2013 annual conference, which brought together leading experts from academia, government, and private industry to evaluate the FDA and to begin charting a course for the agency’s future.

This is a ticketed event. To learn more, visit the 92nd Street Y’s website!

Sponsored by the 92nd Street Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association (New York, New York) and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.

‘The Week in Health Law’ Podcast

By Nicolas Terry and Frank Pasquale

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This week we talked with prolific health law scholar Mark Hall, Director of the Health Law and Policy Program and Fred D. & Elizabeth L. Turnage Professor of Law at Wake Forest University School of Law.

Our discussion started with Medicaid expansion and a fascinating paper, Medicaid Expansion Costs in North Carolina: A Frank Discussion (with Edwin Shoaf) that takes a rigorous cost-benefit approach to the topic. Next up we discussed the potential for employer private exchanges and some of their legal implications. Finally, we looked back on Mark’s 2014 frank assessment of the ACA. Check out Mark’s SSRN page for more of his contributions to the health law and policy literature.

The Week in Health Law Podcast from Frank Pasquale and Nicolas Terry is a commuting-length discussion about some of the more thorny issues in Health Law & Policy. Subscribe at iTunes, listen at Stitcher RadioTunein and Podbean, or search for The Week in Health Law in your favorite podcast app. Show notes and more are at TWIHL.com. If you have comments, an idea for a show or a topic to discuss you can find us on twitter @nicolasterry @FrankPasquale @WeekInHealthLaw