In a cogent ruling filed yesterday (in Monaghan v. Sebelius), federal district judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff of the Eastern District of Michigan granted Thomas Monaghan and his for-profit property management company a temporary restraining order against the HHS mandate. As Judge Zatkoff makes clear in his opinion, the factors he evaluated in issuing the TRO “are the same as those considered for issuing a preliminary injunction.” (Slip op. at 4.) So it’s safe to assume that the TRO will soon be converted into a preliminary injunction. (I’ll add an online link to the opinion when I find one.)
To update my status report: That means that, in seven of nine cases, the owners of for-profit businesses have been deemed to have satisfied the standard for injunctive relief against the HHS mandate.