Inside the Catholic nursing home at the center of a contentious Supreme Court case

Sister Constance Veit presents a handcrafted rose she made with a palm leaf to Martha de Filippi, 93, who lives at the Little Sisters of the Poor Jeanne Jugan Residence in the District. The Little Sisters of the Poor are part of a Supreme Court case on contraception that is being heard Wednesday. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)

By Julie Zauzmer March 23 at 6:00 AM

As she makes her nursing home rounds, as she has for 28 years, Sister Constance Veit gently grasps frail hands, steers wheelchairs with no-nonsense grace and doles out cheery compliments to those in her care. But the moment the nun gets behind the closed door of a conference room, her demeanor hardens. This is a sister at war.

On Wednesday, Veit will be just a few miles from the Little Sisters of the Poor facility where she works in Northeast Washington — and a world away. She will be seated in her habit in the U.S. Supreme Court, a striking representative of the religious organizations fighting the White House health care law because of its requirement that employers cover contraception.

The Little Sisters of the Poor, who run a nursing home chain, are among seven plaintiffs in a case called Zubik v Burwell. While the order isn’t the name on the case, it has become the sympathetic face of it. In the fall, Pope Francis even brought his popularity to bear on the part of the nuns, when he made an unannounced visit to the Sisters in the District.

But advocates ranging from prominent nuns to the ACLU have said the way the contraception mandate already works requires no capitulation on the nuns’ part. In fact, they argue, changing the law would harm the poor whom the nuns claim to support, by denying thousands of women access to a covered service.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/03/23/inside-the-catholic-nursing-home-at-the-center-of-a-contentious-supreme-court-case/

2:09 video at link.