Ninth Circuit Vacates District Court's Summary Judgment and Holds that Church Lacks Standing to Challenge Washington's Parity Act

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On 3/6/25, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a district court's summary judgment ruling and held that the Cedar Park Assembly of God in Kirkland, WA ("Cedar Park") lacked standing to challenge Washington's Reproductive Parity Act under the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause.  The Parity Act requires insurance carriers to provide health coverage for contraceptives and abortions, but did not affect Washington's conscientious objection statute, which allows insurance to accommodate an employer's religious objections (the statute requires employers to provide health coverage for abortions through their insurance even if their plan does not contain such coverage. Cedar Park argued that after the Parity Act, its insurance stopped accommodating its abortion exclusion. The Ninth Circuit held that Cedar Park failed to establish that its claimed injury was traceable to the Parity Act or even redressable, as its injury was premised on the acts of its nonparty health insurer, not the State of Washington. The Ninth Circuit found that any potential injury arising from Washington's conscientious objection statute was based purely on speculation.

https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2025/03/06/23-35560.pdf

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