Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued the injunction shortly before the ACA mandate was set to take effect at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
It proved to be a busy evening for Justice Sotomayor, who also considered a stay request from Utah officials in a case involving same-sex marriage, while also presiding over the famous ball drop in New York City’s Times Square in the final countdown to the New Year.
“It is ordered that respondents are temporarily enjoined from enforcing against applicants the contraceptive coverage requirements imposed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” Sotomayor wrote in her brief order.
She gave the Obama administration until Friday at 10 a.m. to file a response.
At issue is a controversial provision of the ACA that requires employers to provide their workers with health insurance that offers a full range of free contraceptives, including drugs that some religious adherents believe cause abortions.