The session for the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has ended for the year, and there are three cases that I wish to talk about:
1)The first one is actually not a SCOTUS case, but this amazing ruling from the US 9th District gives me a little hope about them. In Latif v. Holder, Thirteen Muslim Americans, four of them US Veterans, are on the very secretive "No-Fly" list. This list is compiled by the FBI and supposedly consists of people who have, or are suspected of having, ties to terrorism.
The problem comes in when you go to the airport and find out you can't fly even though you were able to buy a ticket beforehand. You also have no way to get off the list either. So, you have no way of knowing if you are on the list until you actually try to fly, and there is no process to get your name removed. This ruling will hopefully change that. You can read the decision here.
2) In the SCOTUS cases Riley v. California, 13-132 and U.S. v Wurie, 13-212, the Court in a 9-0 decision basically extended the Fourth Amendment to cellphones. With so much of a persons life in such a hand-held device, unrestricted access to that information could ruin a person. Texts, contacts, photos, phone records and all of the other information contained are a significant part of our life. This ruling requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant before they can analyze your phone. I do not know if you have to physically surrender it to a Law Enforcement Officer on demand. You will have to consult with your own attorney to learn that information.
3) This one has all kinds of misinformation and an army of strawmen surrounding it. Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, 13-354 is a bit confusing, so I am going to devote a lot of attention to it. Here we go:
What is Hobby Lobby? Hobby Lobby is a privately-held company. That means that the Board of Directors (it is a corporation, with all of those laws and regulations that apply to corporations) owns the company. This is not the same as Wal-Mart, or any other publicly-held company (companies that issue stock). The BoD for Wal-Mart has to answer to the stockholders. Hobby Lobby does not. The BoD for Hobby Lobby is a single family.
What are they arguing for? This family has certain deeply-held religious beliefs. Some types of birth control violates those beliefs. This family does not want to be forced to provide those forms of birth control that are in violation of their religious beliefs.
What are those forms of birth control? There are various forms of birth control. For sexually active couples, they fall into two categories: Preventative and Abortive. Preventative means the egg and sperm never meet. This can be through barrier methods such as condoms, diaphragms, spermicide and such. There is the hormonal method of estrogen based birth control, where no egg is released. Hobby Lobby has no problem with these methods. The Abortive method kills the fertilized egg. This is done by two basic methods. Through some kind of IUD (Intrauterine Device) which constantly rubs against the internal lining of the uterus, scraping off any fertilized egg which attaches to the uterine wall. The second method prevents the fertilized egg from attaching, or stopping its growth, effectively killing it. This method goes against the religious beliefs of those who own Hobby Lobby. So, out of about twenty different methods of birth control on the American market, Hobby Lobby is against FOUR of them.
What is the BASE issue? The Constitutional issue here is the restriction of freedom by coercion of the government. Believe it or not, this comes from the Affordable Care Act, but was not part of the original law. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) passed a regulation based on their authority under the ACA to mandate all forms of birth control as part of a health care plan. Here you have a small group of people who share similar religious beliefs who run a business. The fact that Hobby Lobby has over 500 stores is a red herring. Size is not an issue. Remember the First Amendment clearly states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;..." To make the owners of this company offer something that is abhorrent to them violates the First Amendment on its face. This is not about the company, it is about the owners of the company.
So, if you really want/need an IUD or one of the other birth control services that Hobby Lobby refuses to allow? You can QUIT. Are you being forced to work there? Is it the only employer hiring in 100 miles and you can't move? QUIT or DON'T APPLY. Your choice. That is what this all boils down to: Everybody has a choice. Your choice should never limit mine.