Courts & Law

Possibly the most terrible idea to be espoused in the Hobby Lobby furor

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

pill cartoon

There are, of course, a plethora of terrible arguments, bad faith assertions, and vile statements by anti-choicers in the past week to choose from but I have to give the top honor to one Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry for this:

In the wake of the Hobby Lobby decision, there was a lot of chatter about how the court had ruled about what healthcare employers should or shouldn’t provide, which leads me to make a small but important terminological point: contraception is not “healthcare”.

I made this point in passing on Twitter and had, I think, the most violent and unhinged response that I can recall, and I’ve gotten into a lot of arguments on Twitter and elsewhere on the internet.

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Ninth Circuit Court page for same-sex marriage appeals

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While perusing the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals web site, I see that the Court has set up a special page for the same-sex marriage appeals to be argued on  Monday, September 8, 2014, at 9:30 a.m., Courtroom One, James R. Browning US Courthouse, San Francisco, California (does not include the Oregon case). Those of … Read more

Ninth Circuit rules for the DREAMers: ‘animus toward DACA recipients … is not a legitimate state interest’

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Our lawless Tea-Publican state legislature and governor just keep racking up losses in court, pissing away your tax dollars on attorneys fees and costs trying to defend their unconstitutional and unlawful acts motivated by their extremist ideology.

brewer_hateToday the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals smacked down Governor Jan Brewer for her executive order denying drivers licenses to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) aka DREAMers because her executive order as motivated out of “animus toward DACA recipients themselves, in part because of the federal government’s policy toward them” . . . “Such animus, however, is not a legitimate state interest.” Read the unanimous opinion of the three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Here (.pdf).

the Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports, Court clears way for “dreamers” driver’s licenses, says Arizona policy motivated by animosity:

Calling the state policy motivated by animosity, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday ordered that “dreamers” who the federal government allow to work in this country also be issued Arizona driver’s licenses, at least for the time being.

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Update on pending election cases

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Time to catch up on some pending election cases.

Redistricting

gavelHoward Fischer reports that the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission has filed its response to the Arizona Legislature’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court from the dismissal of its case by the U.S. District Court for Arizona. Arizona IRC attorney defends legislative redistricting by citizen commission.

As always, Steve Muratore from the Arizona Eagletarian (and Blog for Arizona) does a far better job of reporting the facts. In late April, Redistricting — Legislature files brief in US Supreme Court:

Soon after learning of the district court ruling against them, the legislature filed a notice of appeal. Today, counsel for the lawmakers filed an Arizona Jurisdictional Statement with the Supreme Court of the United States. That document represents the legislature’s briefing of its appeal.

The 121 page PDF is mostly appendices, providing background on the case.

The AIRC has now filed its response brief. AIRC to SCOTUS: Dismiss legislature’s appeal:

On Monday, June 30, the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission filed a motion to dismiss or affirm with the Supreme Court of the United States in the Arizona Legislature v AIRC case. The legislature had previously appealed the ruling of the three-judge panel that had dismissed the lawsuit that had attempted to invalidate the vote of the People of Arizona to enact independent redistricting.

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From Kennedy to Hobby Lobby: the politicization of religion in America

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JFKWhen John F. Kennedy ran for president in 1960, he had to overcome religious bigotry and prejudice towards Catholics. There are those who then, and even still today, view Catholicism as a “false religion” and Catholics as “papists” who do the bidding of the Pope in Rome. Remember televangelist John Hagee’s remarks in 2008? Hagee to apologize to Catholics – – POLITICO.com.

To confront this concern about his religion, John Kennedy addressed the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, 1960. John F Kennedy speech – I Believe in an America Where the the Separation of Church and State is Absolute’:

[B]ecause I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured–perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again–not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me–but what kind of America I believe in.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute–where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote–where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference–and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

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