The Supreme Court on Monday ordered New York courts to reconsider a case in which the state forced Catholic and Anglican nuns, Catholic dioceses, Christian churches, and faith-based social ministries to pay for their employees’ abortions.

The case, Diocese of Albany v. Harris, involved the nuns and their fellow plaintiffs suing over the New York requirement in 2017. “When the New York State Department of Financial Services initially proposed the abortion mandate for health care plans, it promised to exempt all employers with religious objections. But after facing pressure from abortion activists, New York narrowed the exemption to cover only religious groups that primarily teach religion and primarily serve and hire those who share their faith,” the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit law firm, noted.

But New York courts upheld the mandate, at which point the firms Becket and Jones Day appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. In 2021, the Supreme Court reversed the state courts’ decision and told them to reconsider it after Becket won the case, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, but the state courts stated that Fulton was inapplicable to the Diocese case.

Then, last week, Becket won a unanimous victory in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission. That case involved the court ruling in favor of a Catholic charity that sued the state of Wisconsin after it was forced to pay certain unemployment taxes while other religious organizations were exempted. That ruling led to the court’s decision to remand the Diocese decision back to the New York Court of Appeals.

“The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted,” the Supreme Court wrote. “The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the Court of Appeals for New York for further consideration in light of Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Comm’n.”

“New York wants to browbeat nuns into paying for abortions for the great crime of serving all those in need,” Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, stated. “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. We are confident that these religious groups will finally be able to care for the most vulnerable consistent with their beliefs.”

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Two illegal aliens facing criminal charges were caught by the FBI days after breaking out of a privately held ICE detention facility in New Jersey. 

Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez of Honduras and Joan Sebastian Castaneda-Lozada of Colombia were apprehended on Sunday, three days after escaping from the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark by breaking through a wall. The details of their captures were not released. Two fellow escapees, Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes and Andres Pineda-Mogollon, are still on the run. 

The FBI is currently offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of Bautista-Reyes and Pineda-Mogollon. Both men have been charged with escape from the custody of an institution or officer and have had previous criminal charges. 

Bautista-Reyes, an illegal immigrant from Honduras who illegally entered the country in 2021, was arrested last month by the Wayne Township Police Department for aggravated assault, attempt to cause bodily injury, terroristic threats, and possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes.

Pineda-Mogollon, an illegal immigrant from Colombia who overstayed his tourist visa in 2023, was arrested in April by the New York Police Department on charges of petit larceny and again in May by law enforcement in Union, New Jersey, for residential burglary, conspiracy to commit residential burglary, and possession of burglary tools.

The Department of Homeland Security said last week that the two men were public safety threats. 

The two men captured on Sunday also had criminal histories. 

Sandoval-Lopez, who illegally entered the country in 2019, was arrested by the Passaic Police Department for aggravated assault in February and was arrested in October 2024 for unlawful possession of a firearm. Castaneda-Lozada, who unlawfully entered the country in 2022, was arrested last month for burglary, theft, and conspiracy to commit burglary.

Delaney Hall, which is operated by GEO Group, has faced criticism from some Democrats and activists who say that those detained there are treated poorly. 

DHS has denied those allegations, saying on Friday that “there has been no widespread unrest” at the facility and that it “remains dedicated to providing high-quality services.”

Delaney Hall is the same facility where Newark Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka, along with Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), were arrested during altercations with law enforcement after they attempted to storm into the building last month. McIver was indicted on three counts of forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers and faces up to 17 years in prison.