The National Catholic Register website reports that the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN) filed a lawsuit today (February 9, 2012) in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Alabama, seeking to halt the federal government's imposition of its contraception mandate and to have the court declare the federal rule unconstitutional.
The lawsuit names Kathleen Sebelius -- the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) -- and other federal agencies as defendants.
EWTN is the first lay Catholic organization to challenge the constitutionality of the HHS final rule, approved by the Obama administration on January 20. North Carolina's Belmont Abbey College and Colorado Christian University -- based in Denver -- have both filed suit.
All three are represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty -- a public-interest law firm. Becket is representing EWTN free of charge.
