Supreme Court Deals Massive Blow To Birth Control Access

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Today, the Supreme Court ruled against free and comprehensive access to birth control under the Affordable Care Act, a long-term project of the Religious Right and a decision that will immediately prevent hundreds of thousands of women from accessing free reproductive care. The decision upholds a Trump Administration…

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The Supreme Court Just Ruled to Let Religious Employers Deny Workers Birth Control

Vote Blue in November. Stop oppression of women’s rights!

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The Trump administration is free to let employers deny their workers birth control coverage if they have religious or moral objections, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The 7-2 decision caps off years of lawsuits over the Affordable Care Act’s so-called “birth control mandate.” Ever since the Obama administration required employers to offer their workers contraceptive coverage nearly a decade ago, religious liberty proponents and reproductive rights advocates have been locked in a fight over which employers should be exempt from that requirement. Over the years, the government has given churches and other houses of worship, as well as some other employers, ways to skirt that requirement.

But in 2017, the Trump administration issued new rules that expanded the number of organizations who can refuse to cover their employees’ birth control. Under those rules, private employers with sincerely held religious and moral objections are exempt from the mandate.

Pennsylvania and New Jersey sued over those rules, and won in a lower court. But the Trump administration and the Little Sisters of the Poor — a Catholic religious group and an icon among conservatives for their opposition to the birth control mandate — asked the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling.

In the majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas ruled that the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury did have the authority to carve out those exemptions.

“The only question we face today is what the plain language of the statute authorizes,” Thomas wrote. “And the plain language of the statute clearly allows the Departments to create the preventive care standards as well as the religious and moral exemptions.”

The reliably conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh all joined Thomas’ opinion, as did Chief Justice John Roberts (who recently sided with the liberals in multiple cases).

Justice Elena Kagan also voted with the majority but wrote a separate opinion to explain why. Justice Stephen Breyer joined her opinion. Both of those justices typically vote with the liberal wing of the court.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, meanwhile, dissented in an opinion joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In that dissent, Ginsburg pointed out the government has estimated between 70,500 and 126,400 women could lose their “no-cost contraceptive services” if more employers were exempt from providing it.

“This court leaves women workers to fend for themselves, to seek contraceptive coverage from sources other than their employer’s insurer, and, absent another available source of funding, to pay for contraceptive services out of their own pockets,” she wrote.

Ginsburg made history back in May, when she called into the arguments over the case — held over the phone, due to the coronavirus pandemic — from the hospital. At the time, she was recovering from a “non-surgical treatment” for a benign gallbladder condition.

Ginsburg wasted no time making it clear where she stood on the case.

“You are shifting the employer’s religious beliefs — the cost of them — onto the employees,” Ginsburg told then-Solicitor General Noel Francisco. Women who lose birth control coverage, she added, will likely be forced to hunt for coverage from government programs like Medicaid or pay for their health care out of pocket. “The women end up getting nothing.”

Cover: In this Aug. 26, 2016, file photo, a one-month dosage of hormonal birth control pills is displayed in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

VICE – People Keep Attacking Black Lives Matter Protesters With Their Cars

According to data collected by Ari Weil, the deputy research director at the Chicago Project on Security and Threats of the University of Chicago, Tuesday night’s incident marks at least the 68th car attack nationwide since George Floyd was killed on May 25, sparking a wave of anti-racism protests across the country.

Source: VICE – People Keep Attacking Black Lives Matter Protesters With Their Cars

Martinez Man and Woman Charged for Defacing BLM Mural

(A) white man and woman have been charged with hate crimes after they were filmed (and also filmed themselves…) defacing a Black Lives Matter mural less than an hour after it was painted on a street in front of a courthouse on the 4th of July.

The statement said Anderson and Nelson are charged with violation of civil rights, vandalism under $400 and possession of tools to commit vandalism or graffiti. If they are convicted, they will both face up to one year in county jail.

Source: Martinez Man and Woman Charged for Defacing BLM Mural

Harvard, MIT Sue ICE, Homeland Security Over Rules Barring International Students – NBC Boston

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, asks for a temporary restraining order to keep Homeland Security and ICE from enforcing the federal guidelines which state that removal proceedings could be initiated for international students who refuse to transfer to a school offering in-person classes.

Source: Harvard, MIT Sue ICE, Homeland Security Over Rules Barring International Students – NBC Boston

Trump Pushed CIA to Give Intelligence to Kremlin, While Taking No Action Against Russia Arming Taliban

In speaking about both the Kremlin’s arms and bounty programs, Brett McGurk, who served as Special Presidential Envoy until December 2018, told me, “Both should have been flagged and raised in Trump’s frequent engagements with Putin. It’s even worse if Pompeo was raising the arming issue with Lavrov (as he claims) or Khalilzad with his counterpart, but Trump never raised the issue with Putin. That makes whatever Pompeo may have said irrelevant, as the Russians dismiss anything Americans officials say if not backed from the top.”

Source: Trump Pushed CIA to Give Intelligence to Kremlin, While Taking No Action Against Russia Arming Taliban

Celebrating Caribbean Literature Day (Online) — Petchary’s Blog

What is Caribbean literature, who is writing – and where? This weekend, tune in to two online sessions celebrating Caribbean Literature Day. Yes, this is a “first”! And a wonderful concept. See the information below… And thanks to National Librarian Beverley Lashley for letting me know about this. By the way, I have reviewed a […]

Celebrating Caribbean Literature Day (Online) — Petchary’s Blog

Show me the Way | Poetry for Palestine

Dear God

Ten years ago, I sent you a letter

Innocent, hopeful, trusting and pure

I gave me back to You…

Dear Most Graceful

I am simply asking You for guidance

In this ocean of wickedness and gloom

What do You want me, little old Nahida, to do?

What can we in the Camp of Goodness do?

How can we stop this evil, once and for all?

Show me the way

Show us the way

(read complete poem at link below)

Source: Show me the Way | Poetry for Palestine

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