The Left’s Shameful Persecution of the Little Sisters of the Poor

Josh Hammer

Newsweek Senior Editor-at-Large And Host,
"The Josh Hammer Show"

Last week, a federal court in Pennsylvania ruled against the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Catholic nuns. After this latest ruling, the Sisters may yet be forced to subsidize contraceptives or abortifacients, in violation of their conscience and the tenets of their faith. It is an appalling ruling, in direct contravention of clear and controlling Supreme Court precedent on the topic.

You might be forgiven for wondering what year this is, but don't freak out—you're not time traveling. It really is the year 2025, and "progressives" really are still persecuting the Little Sisters of the Poor. In an era of moral confusion and leftist overreach, few stories more starkly illustrate the militant, intolerant wokeism of the modern Left than its relentless legal war against the Little Sisters of the Poor.

The saga began during the Obama administration, when the Obamacare HHS mandate required employers to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives and abortifacients. For a Catholic religious order, this was a non-starter. The Little Sisters, in abiding by their sincerely held faith, could not and would not cooperate in what they understood to be grave moral evil. But in the eyes of Obama-era bureaucrats, religious conviction was, at best, a secondary concern—and at worst, a downright threat.

Rather than respecting the Sisters' rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (which was signed into law in 1993 by President Clinton after passing the House unanimously and the Senate 97-3), the government forced them into a years-long legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court—not once, but twice. In both Zubik v. Burwell (2016) and Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania (2020), the justices affirmed the Sisters' religious liberty rights.

Regardless, the broader message from the Left was unmistakable: submit to the demands of the woke-secular state or be crushed by it. Obey or die. Tolerance for me, but not for thee.

The Left's decade-plus-long persecution of the Sisters isn't about health care policy. It evinces the harsh reality of fundamentally different, and irreconcilable, visions of America. One side believes in an ordered liberty rooted in religious tradition and constitutionalism. The other believes in a bureaucratized managerial state empowered to override conscience in the name of "equality" and "progress."

And even now, the threat apparently isn't over. There is little doubt that the Sisters will ultimately be vindicated on appeal in this latest crusade—perhaps at the Supreme Court, if need be—but there is also little doubt that the persecution will continue. Why? Because the Little Sisters, by standing firm, represent everything the modern Left despises: humility, faith, and fidelity to a higher calling and a higher moral law.

We should recognize the continued woke-secular persecution of the Little Sisters of the Poor for what it is: a litmus test for whether religious Americans still have a place in public life. The good news is that the Sisters will all but assuredly prevail—yet again—in the courts. The bad news is that they are still having to fight to defend their liberty of conscience, in the first place.

To keep up with me, follow me on Twitter/X, Instagram, and Facebook. You can listen to all episodes of "The Josh Hammer Show" at the Newsweek website or on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts—as well as select radio stations across the country. Make sure to also order my new book, Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West! (Signed copies are available for purchase!)

Our additional highlighted recent Newsweek op-eds include selections from Rep. Riley Moore (R-W. Va.), Nicholas Creel, and Ilya Shapiro and Charles Yockey.

Have a great rest of your week, everyone. We'll see you back here next week.

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Mandel NGAN/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

It's Past Time to Designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Organization

On Tuesday, New York City radio host Sid Rosenberg asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio about whether the State Department intends to designate the Muslim Brotherhood and Council on American-Islamic Relations as terrorist organizations. Rubio responded that "all of that is in the works," although "obviously there are different branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, so you'd have to designate each one of them."

Logistics and bureaucracy aside: It's about time.

For far too long, the United States has treated the Muslim Brotherhood with a dangerous combination of naivete and willful blindness. The Brotherhood is not a random innocuous political movement with a religious bent. It is, and has been since its founding about a century ago, the ideological wellspring of modern Sunni Islamism. The Brotherhood's fingerprints are on jihadist groups as wide-ranging as al-Qaeda and Hamas, yet successive American administrations—Republican and Democratic alike—have failed to designate its various offshoots for what they are: terrorist organizations.

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