Feds appeal judge's order in contraception fight

ATLANTA (AP) The federal government is appealing an order by a federal judge in Atlanta that certain nonprofit organizations in Georgia affiliated with the Catholic Church are not subject to a contraception mandate included in the president's health care law.

U.S. District Judge William Duffey in March permanently barred the federal government from enforcing the mandate against a nonprofit that operates Catholic schools in Georgia and a nonprofit Catholic charity group.

Duffey wrote that enforcing the mandate and a related rule against those entities would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which prohibits the government from imposing a substantial burden on a person's religious practice.

Lawyers for the federal government filed a notice of appeal Friday.