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Nina Pillard Approved, Obamacare Injunction, and No New Cases

By Brett Snider, Esq. on September 24, 2013 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

All has been a bit quiet on the eastern front in the D.C. Circuit. With the exception of Nina Pillard moving forward to a full Senate confirmation and the American Freedom Law Center asking the D.C. District Court to halt the contraceptive mandate, it's been a pretty slow week month.

We may have reached those dreaded legal doldrums, the lethal sea of quietude that may threaten to kill your interest in the D.C. Circuit.

But fear not, gentle FindLaw reader! We shall pass through the eye of this dull needle together!

Nina Pillard Approved, Ready for Next Grilling

After a robust summer of raking D.C. Circuit nominee Nina Pillard over the coals for her "feminist" views, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Pillard in an unsurprising party-line vote, reports The Washington Post. We speculated a bit in mid-September over what Pillard's chances were for snagging an empty seat on the D.C. Circuit bench, and it appears her outlook isn't so bleak after all.

However, Pillard -- and her colleague Patricia Millett who was also approved -- must still face the full Senate before ascending to the D.C. Circuit, and it is likely that Sen. Grassley's (R-IA) obsession with her views on reproductive rights will come back to haunt her.

AFLC Seeks to Halt Contraceptive Mandate

Meanwhile, in a lower D.C. court, the AFLC filed a motion Thursday for preliminary injunction against enforcing the contraceptive services mandate enacted as part of Obamacare, reports Catholic Online.

AFLC filed the lawsuit on behalf of Priests for Life, a coalition or "family" of ministries that is united in its dedication to the pro-life movement. The Circuit Courts have currently split on the issue of enforcing this mandate against private businesses, and it is uncertain how the D.C. District Court will act absent any guidance from the Supreme Court or the D.C. Circuit.

This Week in Rulings ... *Tumbleweeds*

We're beginning to wonder what happened to the D.C. Circuit Court in September. Did the Court have to clear out because the building was being fumigated for potato bugs? Is the Court too busy chowing down on Funyuns and watching nomination hearings on C-SPAN?

Well, whatever they're doing, the only published opinion this month was USA v. Elohim Cross, the one where the drug defendant was wiretapped while talking about "The Wire."

As it has been frequently and poignantly said, it's always darkest before the dawn. But with Obamacare coming into fuller effect in the next few months, creating a looming thunderhead of regulatory nightmares, these legal doldrums may just be the calm before the storm.

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