Mandate tested again

More than a year after ruling narrowly that companies with religious objections can’t be forced to pay for employees’ contraceptives, the Supreme Court faced a chorus of cries from religious charities, schools and hospitals seeking to get out of the birth control business altogether. The justices were scheduled to review several petitions in early November, asking them to overturn federal appeals court decisions that would force nonprofits to opt out of the “contraceptive mandate” included in the Affordable Care Act, rather than receiving the blanket exclusion granted churches and other solely religious institutions. If the court decided to hear the cases, it would mark the fourth time in five years that President Barack Obama’s health care law has come before the high court.