respublica

SCOTUS rulings this morning

In Harris v Quinn the Supreme Court limits unions power to compel contributions to public employee unions but does not forbid it. The decision says that union bargaining fees cannot be imposed on employees that are not full public employees. It is a substantial obstacle to expanding public employee unions, but it does not gut them.

In Harris v Quinn "The Court recognizes a category of "partial public employees" that cannot be required to contribute union bargaining fees."

5-4 vote.

Here we go folks Hobby Lobby Decision:

"Closely held corporations cannot be required to provide contraception coverage".

SCOTUS holds govt can’t require closely held corps w/ religious objections to provide contraception coverage.

Win for Hobby Lobby with another 5-4 vote

The Court says that the government has failed to show that the mandate is the least restrictive means of advancing its interest in guaranteeing cost-free access to birth control. - See more at: http://live.scotusblog.com/Event/Live_blog_of_opinions__June_30_2014#sthash.5Ow6AzHS.dpuf

Big day at the Supreme Court

The decision on Hobby Lobby's opposition to a mandate in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) which provides a form of birth control which destroys embryos. The Hobby Lobby owners, while not opposed to providing birth control in general, drew a line in the sand at being forced to pay for those 4 which would in effect cause abortion. A note: Hobby Lobby already provides 16 forms of birth control.

The media and other interested parties have lined up around the Supreme Court building early this morning in order to hear the judges decision on this one. I'm guessing the decision will be handed down and the judges will beat it out of town ahead of the 4th of July holiday. If they haven't left town already. There's no splitting the baby in half on this one, one side or the other will be unhappy.

5-4 win for Hobby Lobby.

There must be distinction made among people looking at this decision between "banning" birth control and not compelling others to pay for it. The Supreme Court did not say companies could ban birth control, just those which they believe are contrary to their religious beliefs.

The Court makes clear women can still get coverage and it isn’t opening the door wide to religious claims.

 

The Court says that the government has failed to show that the mandate is the least restrictive means of advancing its interest in guaranteeing cost-free access to birth control. - See more at: http://live.scotusblog.com/Event/Live_blog_of_opinions__June_30_2014#sthash.5Ow6AzHS.dpuf

9 ad books

Friday Fed EX dropped off a bound package at our door. It turned out to be 9, yes, 9, different ad books from Restoration Hardware.

Together they weighed a ton and for the life of me I cannot figure why I got this special treatment or why a company would feel the need to put out 9 books and special deliver them. I doubt we'll even look through them.

More than 2/3rds of American Youth don't qualify for military service

More than two-thirds of America's youth would fail to qualify for military service because of physical, behavioral or educational shortcomings, posing challenges to building the next generation of soldiers even as the U.S. draws down troops from conflict zones.

The military deems many youngsters ineligible due to obesity, lack of a high-school diploma, felony convictions and prescription-drug use for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But others are now also running afoul of standards for appearance amid the growing popularity of large-scale tattoos and devices called ear gauges that create large holes in earlobes.

This is a scary statistic. Not so sure why a tattoo would disqualify, but there must be a security reason.

Men and lightning strikes

Here's an interesting statistic. "Every American Killed by Lightning So Far in 2014 Has Been Male."

Lots of theories in the story as to why men are more apt to be struck by lightning than women, all of which are credible.

Traffic still backing up on the Poplar

Going over to Collinsville yesterday during the morning rush yesterday I noticed the westbound traffic jammed way back well east. Which leads to the conclusion that the Musial Veterans Bridge isn't as helpful in eliminating Poplar traffic as was predicted.

A Question for journalists

New York Times writer, Eugene Robinson on Morning Joe today said this while discussing the IRS controversy: "I bet there is nothing there".

What journalism school teaches the "I bet" investigative technique?

New fridge came today

All our measuring and remeasuring seemed to work, the delivery guys had no trouble at all getting it set into place. I do think, however, we'll have to balance into its slot a little better,  but otherwise I'm very happy with it.

They used a dolly to get it down the driveway, but after that they each had two straps on their arms and carried it that way up the stairs and into the house. I asked how much the fridge weighed and how they managed with the giant sized refridgerators and they told me they use the straps on all of them. Ours weighs about 300 pounds and the bigger ones 400. They said it didn't seem that heavy.

Another overreach

The courts are busy today, state and federal. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled this morning that President Obama overreached his authority in his use of making temporary appointments to high level government jobs. Separation of Powers was the winner here.

The justices said in their first-ever consideration of the Constitution’s recess appointments clause that Congress gets to decide when it is in recess and that there was no recess when Obama acted. The president said he made the appointments in the face of Republican refusal to allow the NLRB to function. The decision was 9-0

Also, in the second and last ruling announcement by the SCOTUS today, the justices ruled in McCullen v. Coakley that the Massachusetts law limiting outside access to abortion clinics by protestors was illegal and violated the demonstrators freedom of speech guaranteed by the first amendment. The Massachusetts law set up a protest free zone. Decision was also 9-0

There are several other SCOTUS rulings expected which are of interest to many that are in the controversial realm. But these two are it for today. Stay tuned.

Hello big soda

The New York Supreme Court ruled today that the city of New York and Mayor Bloomberg exceeded their scope of regulatory authority in limiting the size of soft drinks people could buy. 

I don't believe I've ever purchased a giant soda or even buy the 2 liter bottles, but this business of local and federal governments in the business of banning things has gotten to be too much overreach.