Within just a few days of its Hobby Lobby ruling, the US Supreme Court gave temporary protection against the contraceptives mandate to Wheaton College, an evangelical institution. Wheaton College is eligible for the “accommodation”–different than the exemption from the mandate for churches and church auxiliaries.

In the accommodation, a religious nonprofit with a religious objection to some or all of the mandated contraceptive drugs and devices can fill out a form for its insurance company or third-party administrator (TPA) of health benefits, certifying that it is a religious nonprofit with such an objection, and specifying the contraceptives that must be excluded. The insurance company or TPA must exclude those contraceptives from the objecting religious employer’s health plan-and then instruct that employer’s women employees that it will pay for their uses of any of the excluded contraceptives.

As Wheaton and other protesting religious nonprofits have told the courts, this is not a meaningful protection of their religious freedom: the form they must sign is a legal document that triggers, requires, exactly the contraceptive coverage they have objected to.

In its brief July 3 ruling, the Supreme Court agreed to release Wheaton from the accommodation’s requirement while its case against the mandate works its way through the courts. As it did earlier when the Little Sisters of the Poor asked for similar relief, the Supreme Court said that Wheaton College may simply submit a form attesting to its religious objection to the federal Health and Human Services Department. It is up to HHS to instruct the insurer or TPA to supply the contraceptives.

Eventually, perhaps for its next term, starting in the Fall, one or more of the nonprofit religious organizations cases will be accepted by the US Supreme Court for a definitive ruling. In the meantime, as the Becket Fund’s indispensable HHS Mandate Information Central web page reports, of the 51 nonprofit cases, the courts have granted provisional victories 30 times vs. 3 temporary rejections; of the 49 for-profit cases, there are currently 40 provisional victories vs. 6 temporary defeats.