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A federal appeals court upheld a lower court order that blocked the Trump administration from enforcing rules that allow more employers to deny insurance coverage for contraceptives to women. The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said Friday that state plaintiffs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey were likely to succeed in proving that appropriate procedures weren't followed and the regulations weren't authorized under the 2010 health care overhaul or required by a law aimed at protecting religious freedom. (7/13)

The Trump administration’s rules, issued in November by the DHHS, would have exempted a broad swath of employers from the mandate contained in the Affordable Care Act. Those rules represented a second attempt by Trump officials to create such an exemption, after a first set was blocked in 2017. Judge Patty Schwartz, writing for the court, said the Affordable Care Act plainly states women must be provided preventive health services. “Nowhere in the enabling statute did Congress grant the agency the authority to exempt entities from providing insurance coverage for such services,” she wrote. (Hackman, 7/12)

Louise Melling, the deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), applauded the court for its decision, calling the rules “discriminatory.” “Yet another court has stopped this administration from sanctioning discrimination under the guise of religion or morality,” Melling wrote in a statement. “The Trump administration’s rules authorized employers and universities to strip women of birth control coverage — a benefit guaranteed to them by law, and meant to advance their health and equality. We applaud the order to enjoin the enforcement of these discriminatory rules.” (Campisi, 7/12)