Today, a bare majority of the Court held that under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, employers do not have to adhere to federal regulations requiring that health insurance offered to employees cover contraceptives if the requirement conflicts with their religious beliefs. The majority opinion supporting this view, written by Justice Alito and joined by the […]
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Posted inLaw and Justice
A Very Bad No-Good Week in the Circut Courts
Last week’s decision reinstating Texas’s draconian abortion restrictions was an excellent illustration of why Republicans are so determined to keep President Barack Obama from making appointments to the federal courts. Unfortunately, that case was only the first of a spate of scary decisions announced by conservative circuit court judges in the last seven days. One […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
The 5th Circuit Joins the War on Reproductive Freedom
Earlier this week, District Court judge Lee Yeakal issued an injunction preventing some provisions of Texas’s draconian new anti-safe abortion law from being enforced. As the Prospect‘s Abby Rapoport explained in detail, Judge Yeakal’s ruling was hardly an unmitigated triumph for reproductive freedom, as it left some of the worst parts of the statute standing. […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Court Holds Key Texas Abortion Regulation Unconstitutional
Several states have begun to erect a series of regulations on abortion that would make it essentially impossible for many women within their states to obtain an abortion by making it impossible for clinics to operate. The question now becomes whether the federal courts from preventing states from doing piecemeal from what they’re theoretically constitutionally […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Wisconsin Judge Throws Out Anti-Union Legislation
The struggle over Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s bid to deny collective bargaining rights to most of the state’s public sector employees isn’t quite over yet. Last week, state judge Juan Colas threw out the law as it applied to most of the covered employees. The crucial question at this point is whether this opinion has […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Would Roe Survive Romney?
Mitt Romney needed to distance himself from the Republican Senate candidates who have been explicit about the misogyny opponents of legal abortion are supposed to leave latent, babbling nonsense about how women can’t get pregnant from “legitimate rape” and comparing being raped to having sex outside of marriage. So Romney did what he does best: […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
What’s Wrong With Scalia’s Sovereignty Argument
The Justice seems to have forgotten about the Fourteenth Amendment.
Posted inLaw and Justice
For Conservatives, There’s Never A “Right Way” To Change the Status Quo
In an unfortunately timed post last week calling out Obama for being incoherent on same-sex marriage, Ross Douthat made a familiar claim: The first reason is that while the increase in public support for same-sex marriage over the last two decades has been astonishingly swift, it has not been irreversible. Instead, sudden bursts of legal […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Arizona’s Unconstitutional New Abortion Law
Yesterday, Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed a draconian abortion law that, among other things, effectively bans abortions after 18 weeks after conception. This law, like other attempts by state legislatures to ban pre-viability abortions, represents a substantial dilution of a woman’s right to choose. In addition, it’s worth noting that the law is plainly unconstitutional […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
The Contraception Mandate Does Not Violate the First Amendment
There are a number of problems with Michael Gerson’s column in the Washington Post arguing that the Obama administration’s application of contraceptive coverage requirements to institutions providing secular services but affiliated with religious groups was an “epic political blunder.” For one thing, the entire premise of the column is wrong. The new regulations are in […]