Noah Feldman, Columnist

A Texas Judge Just Took Religious ‘Freedom’ Too Far

A federal district court ruling that holds a Christian employer can stop offering health insurance covering anti-HIV drugs deserves more attention.

September 14, 2022 at 12:30 PM UTC

By Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

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The long march of religious liberty exemptions is gaining speed. The people who brought you contraceptive care exemptions and Covid rule and vaccine exemptions have now moved on to insurance for anti-HIV drugs. Last week, a federal district court held that a Christian employer is entitled to an exemption from the requirement that all insurance plans must cover pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP) drugs that prevent the spread of HIV.

Superficially, the court’s decision, under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), seems to resemble the exemption from the Affordable Care Act’s mandatory contraceptive coverage that the Supreme Court granted in the 2014 Hobby Lobby case. But on a deeper level, the new decision goes much further than the Hobby Lobby decision.