SCOTUS

In some ways, I think the nation dodged a bullet in today's two retrograde decisions by the Supremes.

The union case was limited to home care workers, which is a shame, but the worry was that Alito's decision would strip public unions of their rights, too.

The Hobby Lobby case applies to morning after pills and IUDs.  Not sure why an IUD is a bad thing, I guess because conception has occurred and the IUD prevents the zygote from attaching to the uterus.  But it leaves in place birth control pills, condoms, diaphragms, tubal ligation and the patch.

The problems are twofold.  First, as Charlie Pierce points out, the case explicitly denies the religious beliefs of Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses and others.  What the case does is preference Catholicism - and a certain conservative Catholicism at that - over other faiths.  Alito's opinion specifically calls post-conception birth control immoral.  That's a religious belief.

My hope as that Antonin Scalia gets called home soon, so that we can appoint a liberal protestant to the bench.  The five judge majority that decided the case were all Catholics.

The second point as that we continue to see decisions that prize the personhood of corporations over the personhood of actual fucking people.  Whether you are a home care worker or a Hobby Lobby sales clerk, your rights are less important that the corporation that employs you.

It's time - past time - to pass an amendment that strip all Constitutional rights beyond contract rights from corporations.

Corporations are NOT people, my friends.