The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned a New York state court decision that compelled the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany to include abortion coverage in its employee health care plan. The diocese contends this state mandate, which New York has required of employers since 2017, violates its First Amendment rights.

While state law includes exemptions for some religious organizations, New York courts have repeatedly ruled that the Catholic Diocese of Albany does not qualify because its primary employment and service extend beyond members of its own faith.

The Diocese of Albany has consistently argued that this exemption is too narrow, contending that it remains a religious group dedicated to serving the poor, irrespective of their faith. The diocese asserts it should not be penalized for not requiring its employees to be Catholic.

In its appeal, the diocese stated, “We believe this is unconstitutional since it involves government entanglement in the fundamental rights of free exercise of faith and conscience.”

A broad coalition of religious groups from various denominations has also challenged similar abortion coverage requirements. Among the most prominent challengers are the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Catholic nuns dedicated to serving the elderly poor, who have argued such laws force them to violate their deeply held religious beliefs concerning the sanctity of life.

On Monday, the Supreme Court vacated the judgment against the diocese, remanding the case to the court of appeals of New York for further consideration. The court cited its recent ruling in Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry, where it unanimously held that Wisconsin could not deny a religious tax exemption to a Catholic charity on the grounds that its work was deemed too secular to qualify.

“New York wants to browbeat nuns into paying for abortions for the great crime of serving all those in need,” a vice president and senior counsel at Becket, Eric Baxter, told an anti-abortion news outlet, Life News. “For the second time in four years, the Supreme Court has made clear that bully tactics like these have no place in our nation or our law.”

This marks the second instance the Supreme Court has returned the Diocese of Albany case to the state courts for re-examination.

Following the initial remand, the New York courts maintained that the state’s narrow religious exemption did not inherently disfavor religion. While rejecting that rationale, the high court stopped short of issuing a direct ruling on the constitutionality of the abortion coverage exemption itself.

The diocese had hoped the justices would rule on this broader constitutional question, arguing the law might not survive strict scrutiny. Lawyers for the diocese contend that the requirement that religious groups obtain “proof” of exemption effectively forces them to align with the state’s narrow definition of qualifying organizations, thereby categorically excluding many religious ministries.