Notre Dame sues Obama administration over birth control mandate

On Monday, the University of Notre Dame filed suit against the Obama administration over its rule that all employers must offer contraception in their insurance plans, The Ticket reports. Notre Dame is now the seventh religious college to sue over the mandate; it’s also the largest school to do so. President Barack Obama gave the commencement address at the prominent Catholic university in 2009. In its suit, the school says that health care reform’s contraception mandate violates its religious freedom and would require it to go against Catholic principles by offering contraception and sterilization to students and faculty in its insurance plan. The university serves 11,500 students of different religious faiths, and is traditionally led by a Catholic priest as president. A few dozen Catholic dioceses and other religious organizations also filed suit today…

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Romney defends marriage and faith in Liberty University speech

Mitt Romney doubled down on his position against same sex marriage, telling graduates at Liberty University Saturday that marriage between “one man and one woman” is an “enduring institution” that should be defended, the Ticket reports. Coming just days after President Obama endorsed the right of gays and lesbians to marry, the comment earned Romney a standing ovation from the crowd of more than 30,000 people—the largest crowd Romney has ever addressed as a political candidate–but it was his only mention of the hot button social issue. Instead, the presumptive Republican nominee used his commencement address at that evangelical university to emphasize the importance of faith and family—and take some slight digs at President Obama’s handling of the country, though he didn’t name his 2012 opponent.

“Lately, I’ve found myself thinking about life in four-year stretches. And let’s just say that not everybody has achieved as much in these last four years as you have,” Romney said. ” But that’s a theme for another day.”

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Protestant colleges threaten to drop student health care over contraceptive mandate

On a chilly winter day earlier this month, 120 college presidents–mostly of Protestant schools–from around the country met in Washington for an annual meeting sponsored by the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, a group that represents 136 American schools and more than 400,000 students, The Ticket reports. One topic kept coming up in the discussions: How to combat President Barack Obama’s proposed mandate for religious employers to provide health insurance that offers free contraception, a decision that would affect all of their institutions–and could violate some of their deepest-held beliefs. During the conference, 25 of the presidents held a separate policy meeting to discuss the proposed directive, which was first established in the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and was upheld this year by the Department of Health and Human Services…

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