Rack up another one for the opponents of the HHS mandate, which forces various religious business-owners to fund birth control/sterilizaton/abortion, in conflict with their conscientiously held religious beliefs.  Lefties Obama and Sebelius have drooled over the prospect of reducing members of socially conservative religious denominations to dhimmitude.  For now, the U.S.  Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia  has dealt them one more blow, ruling in favor of Francis and Philip Gilardi, whose 400-employee companies, Freshway Foods and Freshway Logistics, distribute produce in Ohio and the eastern half of the United States.  The Gilardis are defended by the ACLJ, which is bringing 7 of the 40+ suits which have been filed against Obama’s HHS mandate.

Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote “It is clear that the government has failed to demonstrate how such a right, whether described as noninterference, privacy or autonomy, can extend to the compelled subsidization of a woman’s procreative practices.”

American Center for Law and Justice senior counsel, Francis J. Manion expressed satisfaction that the appeals court concurred with most of his arguments, but sees it as a partial victory.  The current decision of the appeals court partially reverses the decision of a lower court which denied an injunction against the HHS mandate as it applied to the Gilardis and their companies.  Relief is now granted to the owners, but not to their companies.  Manion writes that he will file a petition for certiorare with the Supreme court to address the injunctive relief and religious freedom  which should be accorded  to the companies, as well as their founders and owners.

At this time, the lefties of the Obama administration are recognizing the religious rights of groups of people if they call themselves churches, but not if they use another name for themselves.  This is the current status of their stepwise removal of religious freedom and  imposition of statism, dhimmitude and slavery.   Similarly, Obamacare itself  represents  a step in the programmed regression  towards single payer, government controlled, socialized medicine.

Update:  Petition for Writ of Certiorare is filed.