The Little Sisters of the Poor are back in court again, continuing their 14-year battle to overturn an Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandate that requires employers to provide contraceptives, including some that cause abortions, in their employee health plans.
As CBN News has reported, the U.S. Supreme Court already ruled in favor of the Catholic nuns twice: Once in 2016, when the high court decided the federal government must protect the religious freedom of those who oppose contraceptives, and again in 2020, when they upheld the rule, protecting the Sisters’ right to serve without violating their beliefs.
Additionally, Health & Human Services issued a rule in 2017 not only admitting it broke the law by trying to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide contraceptives, but also exempted religious groups from having to provide them.
However, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have dug their heels in deeper and fought in court to strip the Little Sisters of that protection.
In August, a federal judge sided with both of the state’s attorneys general, ruling that the adoption of the 2017 rule does not apply to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), as the Supreme Court had not ruled on that law.
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According to the EPA website, APA governs the process by which federal agencies develop and issue regulations.
Judge Wendy Beetlestone ruled that the 2017 rule failed to comply with APA and therefore was “arbitrary and capricious,” Catholic News Agency reports. As a result, religious groups must provide abortion and contraceptives in their healthcare plan or pay tens of millions of dollars in fines.
“The agencies’ actions in promulgating the rule were arbitrary and capricious — in that they failed to ‘articulate a satisfactory explanation for (their) action(s) including a ‘rational connection between the facts found and the choices made,'” Beetlestone wrote in her opinion.
The Becket Fund, a non-profit legal group representing the nuns, is asking the federal appeals court to block Beetlestone’s ruling and protect religious freedoms.
In their appeal, the law group points to previous rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and notes that the August 2025 ruling could create a “constitutional conflict” because states cannot legally reimpose the original mandate, CNA reports.
“The fourteen-year legal crusade against the Little Sisters has been needless, grotesque, and un-American,” said Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and lead attorney for the Little Sisters. “The States have no business trying to take away the Little Sisters’ federal civil rights. The Third Circuit should toss the States’ lawsuit into the dustbin of history and uphold the protection the Little Sisters already won at the Supreme Court…twice.”
When reflecting on the upcoming appeal, the Little Sisters of the Poor admit that they are a little court weary, but are willing to continue in the fight for religious liberty.
“For nearly 200 years, our order has welcomed the elderly, poor, and dying into our homes as we would welcome Christ Himself,” said Mother Loraine Marie Maguire of the Little Sisters of the Poor. “It is painful that we have spent more than a decade defending that mission in court. We simply want to continue our work without being forced to violate our faith, and we pray Pennsylvania and New Jersey will end this needless harassment.”
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the appeal, and oral arguments will take place in early 2026.
