This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, August 26, 2015.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Does a federal executive agency have the power to decide which churches or religious non-profits

have their freedom of expression burdened by

Obamacare.

In the Cato Institute's new brief in the case of Little Sisters of the Poor v Burwell, the conclusion

is no.

Josh Blackman is one of the authors of that brief. We spoke yesterday. The

hobby lobby case established that the federal government could not compel

certain organizations a closely held family-owned

company to provide certain

contraception to its employees.

So what were the results of that case and what is the case that Cato was filed in?

So after the Hobby Lobby decision, the federal government back and said okay we can't force these religious

organizations to pay for contraceptives so let's try an accommodation right let's do

it like this we will the federal government pays directly to the

insurance company and the insurance company then provides the

contraceptives the employees so effectively the actual religious organization doesn't pay a penny.

But what changes is that the insurance contract, what's called an ERISA arrangement

between the organization and the insurance company is amended.

And the religious organizations, for example, the Little Sisters of the Poor, these are an order

of nuns, they say that they are complicit in sin because they're now contracting with

...