Tag: Supreme Court

Categories
culture politics

Public vs Private Companies

Blessed 2 Scrapbook
Photo by Paul Riismandel

Coverage of the Hobby Lobby case seems to be consistent in saying that the U.S. Supreme Court is essentially deciding the question of whether not-specifically-religious corporations can exercise religious rights. The issue in this case is requiring insurance coverage for federally determined forms of contraception but if the decision is based on the ability of companies to exercise religious rights then it could also extend to whether companies can choose under what circumstances they will offer their services.

It struck me this morning that the question isn’t really whether corporations can exercise religious rights. The real question is: at what point in the pursuit of profit do individuals diminish or forego their right to religious expression? Those siding with the government in this case are afraid that companies will be able to use the guise of religious belief to get around the expense of some legal mandates. After all, if the Green family (Hobby Lobby) can claim religious belief avoid paying for some expensive forms of birth control for their employees why can’t the Walton family (Walmart) do the same?

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Categories
National politics

The Irony of Supressing Votes

I find it rather funny that we have such a fuss being raised about laws requiring voters to show ID at the polls that a case has to be heard by the Supreme Court on the issue. What strikes me is that:

  1. if we had more voters voting, whatever fraud the voter ID laws are meant to combat would have less effect in a larger pool of ballots
  2. the plantiffs have not demonstrated that this law has prevented anyone from voting
  3. voting fraud is more rare at the polling place than it is in absentee voting where no ID is required

This seems like another case of the law being used to address minutia

Categories
National politics

Nomination and Confirmation

Well, we’ve had the name of John Roberts as the niminee for the opening on the Supreme Court bench for a couple of days now. I have tried to give myself some time to gather some information and draw some conclusions before I posted my thoughts in this nomination. The main questions were: (1)should John Roberts be confirmed? and (2)will John Roberts be confirmed?My personal answers at this time are: (1)I still don’t have enough information to say for sure and (2)probably.

John Roberts has the objective credentials to be a supreme court justice. There are those who might complain about a lack of experience, but really we could do much worse on experience. So far the democratic senators who have spoken up seem to indicate that they will not make this a nasty confirmation. They have both the right and the responsibility to question Judge Roberts thoroughly during the confirmation hearings but it appears that they will not resort to a filibuster which means that he will probably be confirmed.

Now, because of how little I have been able to learn about this man with the thin judicial resume, the question has been raised in my head: is the way to get people appointed to the supreme court in these days of divisive politics to find someone who has a scant record who you hope will do what you want (based on your own ideological leaning) but who has very little for the opposition to oppose? That seems to be the formula here. I do not mean to imply that Judge Roberts is unqualified or even that the president might think him unqualified but dependable. I am saying that one of the reasons that I believe this nomination will succeed, and possibly one of the reasons that it was made, is because the liberals may have their objections and suspicions but they have very little ammunition from Roberts’ short tenure as a federal judge.

Hopefully I have made it clear what I am referring to when I ask: does our political situation dictate that this is how to make things happen? And if so: is it a safe situation to require that a judge have a short track record if he is to survive the confirmation process?