Today the Supreme Court hasset us back once again with two more disconcerting decisions. In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Court ruled 5-4 ruled that the government cannot require a corporation to provide its employees with insurance that covers birth control if doing so goes against the owners’ religious beliefs. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in her dissent, this decision "would allow corporations to opt out of almost any law that they find "incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs" regardless of the sincere religious beliefs of the employees.
In another 5-4 ruling, Harris v. Quinn, the Court ruled to eliminate agency fee requirements for Illinois home healthcare workers. What does that mean? Illinois is one of 26 states that require public-sector workers to pay dues to unions that negotiate their contracts and represent them in grievances, even if the employee is not a member of that union. To pose the issue another way, it addressed whether non-union members should reap the benefits of organized labor (wages, benefits and protections negotiated through collective bargaining), without having to pay towards those benefits. (Employees can always get a refund on dues money that pays for political action with which they disagree.) The Court sided with the free-loaders, claiming they are only semi-public employees.
It’s no coincidence that the Koch and Walton families backed the plaintiffs. This is just another of their tactics to silence and shackle workers.
Wednesday Campaign Wrap-Up to Cover Delaware Endorsements
There are reported to be some surprises in the list of political endorsements due to be released by Delaware ADA tomorrow. Because the Diamond State is so heavily Democratic, most of the key decisions will be made in the Democratic September primary. But because there are still some outposts of Republican strength in the more rural southern part of the state, the endorsements will also include general election contests. More endorsements are coming all summer long in a rolling process; read about the first batch this week in the Wednesday Campaign Wrap-Up.
Catch up on last week’s campaign update on Iowa’s U.S. Senate race here.
Noteworthy:
What if there was a way to improve the finances of the US Postal Service, preserve and create good jobs for working class Americans, and provide much needed banking services for people who are currently at the mercy of unscrupulous payday lenders and loan sharks? There is.
Did you know that since 1978, wages for executives have increased by over 900%, while workers have only seen a meager 10% raise over the same period? Read Harper Neidig's latest, “A Raise in the Minimum Wage is Long Overdue.”
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