Insufficiently Religious': Bible Publisher Tyndale Sues Obama Admin Over Contraceptive Mandate

With the growing chorus of lawsuits over the Obama administration's contraceptive mandate, there's a chance that the Supreme Court will, once again, be ruling on the president's controversial health care legislation.

As religiously-owned businesses, universities and other cohorts launch individual lawsuits against the regulation, the situation only seems to be intensifying. This week, Tyndale House Publishers, a Bible-only publishing house, is joining in with an anti-contraception mandate complaint of its own.

In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday (read it here), Tyndale maintained that the regulation violates its owners to rights to their free exercise of religion -- a sentiment that is guaranteed by the First Amendment. However, the debate, as seen in other cases, seems to hinge on whether a business can be exempt from government provisions based on his or her owner's personal religious viewpoints.

Christianity Today has more about the newest case against the Obama administration's mandate:

"The federal government has deemed devout publishers of the Bible to be insufficiently 'religious' to enjoy religious freedom in America," the complaint stated.

According to a press release from Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund), which is representing Tyndale, "The publisher is subject to the mandate because Obama administration rules say for-profit corporations are categorically non-religious."

However, the for-profit publisher is owned by the Christian nonprofit Tyndale House Foundation, which funds Christian charities and receives 96 percent of Tyndale House Publishers' profits.

As noted, Tyndale is only one of the numerous religiously-owned companies to battle the contraceptive mandate. As TheBlaze reported in July, Catholic-owned employer Hercules Industries won a temporary halt of enforcement against the controversial mandate (the case is still being debated).

But on Friday, Missouri federal court Judge Carol E. Jackson, who was appointed by President George H. W. Bush, found that the requirement that all employers provide contraception free-of-charge doesn’t infringe upon O’Brien Industrial Holdings, a Catholic business, and its rights to religious exercise.

Craft store chain Hobby Lobby, the popular, evangelical-owned craft-store chain, also filed a separate lawsuit against the contraceptive mandate last month. Rather than taking issue with birth control, Hobby Lobby’s main concern is with the morning after pill and other related drugs. The store chain filed its complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

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Related:

• Despite Justices’ Ruling, Obamacare Could Make Its Way Back to Supreme Court — Here’s How
• Fed Judge Dismisses Catholic-Owned Company‘s Lawsuit Against Obama’s Contraceptive Mandate