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The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether the Trump administration may allow employers to limit women’s access to free birth control under the Affordable Care Act. The case returns the court to a key battleground in the culture wars, but one in which successive administrations have switched sides. In the Obama years, the court heard two cases on whether religious groups could refuse to comply with regulations requiring contraceptive coverage. (Liptak, 1/17)

The justices said Friday they would hear the administration’s appeal of lower- court decisions that blocked the rules nationwide. A Philadelphia-based U.S. appeals court in July ruled the administration’s exemptions likely weren’t authorized under the 2010 health-care law and weren’t required by a different federal law protecting religious rights. The court also agreed to hear a related appeal by the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Roman Catholic nuns that operates nursing homes. In the case before the court, Pennsylvania and New Jersey sued the administration, arguing that its exemptions would unlawfully deny preventive health care to millions of women. (Kendall, 1/17)

It marks the third high court review of the contraception mandate stemming from Obamacare — and the first since Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined the court. The provision requires employer-sponsored health plans to provide their enrollees with contraceptive coverage at no extra personal cost. Both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh considered similar cases while appellate court judges, and both showed sympathy for religious groups seeking exemptions from the requirement on moral grounds. (Luthi, 1/17)

Arguments in the case before the high court, which has a 5-4 conservative majority including two justices appointed by Trump, are likely to be in April with a ruling due by the end of June. “The Trump administration’s attempt to take away people’s insurance coverage for contraception is one of the administration’s many attacks on access to abortion and contraception, and we hope the Supreme Court will uphold the lower court’s ruling blocking this awful law,” said Brigitte Amiri, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes the rule. (Hurley, 1/17)

Kristen Waggoner, an attorney with the religious liberty group the Alliance Defending Freedom, said the case could have far-reaching implications for other businesses and organizations that oppose providing contraception through their health plans. "They're not interfering [with employees' choices]," Waggoner said. "This is about whether a person can run their business in a way that's consistent with their beliefs." Waggoner's group is representing the anti-abortion rights group the March for Life in a related case that is also working its way through the legal system. (McCammon, 1/17)

The Supreme Court on Friday announced it will hear two cases on whether employer health plans should be allowed religious and moral exemptions from the Affordable Care Act's requirement to cover birth control. The Trump administration in November 2018 issued final rules to allow more employers to opt out of providing no-cost birth control, but federal judges have stopped the rules from taking effect. (Cohrs, 1/17)