On Friday, Westminster Theological Seminary joined the throng of challengers to the unconstitutional HHS mandate that forces employers to violate their consciences or pay large fines. Westminster, which is represented by prominent Houston litigator Ken Wynne, moved to intervene in the Becket Fund’s lawsuit on behalf of East Texas Baptist University and Houston Baptist University in Houston federal district court.
A leading Reformed Protestant seminary located in Pennsylvania, Westminster Theological Seminary has come alongside two other Christian universities with differing theological backgrounds to champion a cause that they hold in common. None of the universities can provide abortion-causing drugs to their employees without violating their consciences.
“This latest development is more evidence that this unconstitutional mandate violates the core beliefs of religious groups across the theological spectrum,” says Diana Verm, counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “We applaud Westminster Theological Seminary’s brave stand for its conscience, and we welcome it in the fight against government intrusion into its beliefs.”
There are 49 separate lawsuits challenging the HHS mandate, which is a regulation under the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”). The Becket Fund led the charge against the unconstitutional HHS mandate, and along with East Texas Baptist University and Houston Baptist University represents: Hobby Lobby, Ave Maria University, Belmont Abbey College, Colorado Christian University, EWTN, and Wheaton College.
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The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions—from Anglicans to Zoroastrians. For 18 years its attorneys have been recognized as experts in the field of church-state law. The Becket Fund recently won a 9-0 victory in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, which The Wall Street Journal called one of “the most important religious liberty cases in a half century.”
