A federal court ruled against the Little Sisters of the Poor on Wednesday in a years-long effort by blue states to force the order of Catholic nuns who care for the elderly and the poor to provide contraceptives in their healthcare plan or face millions of dollars in fines.

The U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania sided with New Jersey and Pennsylvania, finding that religious exemptions to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) contraception mandate granted by the federal government during the first Trump administration were “arbitrary and capricious” and did not follow the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

U.S. District Court Judge Wendy Beetlestone, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote in the order that the religious exemptions are “vacated in the

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