apathy and its rewards

By Liberal Librarian

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that anti-abortion protestors enjoyed a special status not accorded to the normal run of protestor.

This week, before the conservative majority scurried out of town, it ruled that a) corporations are persons whose owners’ religious convictions must be accommodated, and b) home health workers in Illinois didn’t have to pay union dues if they weren’t directly members of those unions, even though the unions negotiated on their behalf.

Within a week’s span, the Court has done more to upend women’s and labor rights than any similar span in any other Court session for the past few decades.

But this was a predictable outcome of the 2000 election. Once George W. Bush was ensconced in the White House by a slightly less conservative but no less supine Court, the goal of the conservative movement has been to control the one unaccountable branch of the Federal government. Fortunately, with President Obama’s election and re-election, and with Senator Harry Reid’s filibuster reforms, the lower courts are now majority appointed by Democratic presidents. But the Supreme Court has veered so far to the Right—occasional favorable rulings notwithstanding—that it is almost a caricature of the warnings of a runaway Court those on the Left have bruited.

Read More: http://theobamadiary.com/2014/06/30/apathy-and-its-rewards/

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Tell Congress: I support birth control and I vote

The Supreme Court just ruled that women working at certain private corporations don't have a right to birth control coverage under their health insurance plan at work.

That means decisions about women's health are left up to their bosses. We need to show Congress and politicians that women won't stand for this--and if they don't drop the attacks on our health care, we'll drop them. We have a chance to do that in November.

Our job is to make clear this simple fact: if you don't support affordable access to birth control, you don't support women--and that will cost you votes. If tens of thousands of us say this with one loud voice, candidates and elected officials will distance themselves from this decision and think twice before they push further attacks on women's right to health care. That's how we'll begin the process to build our majority for birth control and reverse this decision as soon as possible -- and to make that happen even quicker, we're working with our friends at ColorOfChange. Will you sign?

http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/SCOTUS_birthcontrol_pledge/?akid=1091.188861.6CeKDh&rd=1&t=2