Evening round-up: Contraception mandate and public-sector unions
on Jun 30, 2014 at 9:44 pm
This morning, the Court issued its decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, holding (in a five-to-four opinion by Justice Alito) that, “as applied to closely held corporations, the HHS regulations imposing the contraceptive mandate violate the” Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Lyle Denniston covered the opinion for this blog, Amy Howe explained the ruling in Plain English, and Kevin Russell discussed whether the holding could allow religious exemptions from anti-discrimination laws. Other early coverage comes from Jess Bravin and Louise Radnofsky of The Wall Street Journal (subscription required); Adam Liptak of The New York Times; Robert Barnes at The Washington Post; David Nather and Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico; Bill Mears and Tom Cohen of CNN; Mary Agnes Carey at NPR; Richard Wolf at USA Today; Sandhya Somashekhar at The Washington Post; Eugene Volokh of the Volokh Conspiracy; William Hibbitts at Jurist; and Mark Sherman of the Associated Press (via the Boston Globe). Commentary on the decision comes from Noah Feldman of Bloomberg View; Mark Movsesian at First Things; Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy; Adam Winkler at the Huffington Post; Megan McArdle at Bloomberg View; John Dilulio at FixGov; Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic; Aaron E. Carroll at The New York Times; Leland Berk for the Federal Regulations Advisor; the editors at the National Review; John Yoo at the National Review; Jeffrey Toobin at CNN; Ian Millhiser at Think Progress; Garrett Epps at The Atlantic; Julian Sanchez at the Cato Institute; Ed Mannino at his personal blog; Alex J. Luchenitser at ACSblog; Sarah Warbelow at ACSblog; Daniel Fisher of Forbes; Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute; and Marci Hamilton and Leslie Griffin who wrote three articles on the case at Hamilton and Griffin on Rights. Lastly, video coverage comes from Christopher Schmidt at ISCOTUS.
The Court also released its decision in Harris v. Quinn, holding (in a five-to-four opinion by Justice Alito) that “the First Amendment prohibits the collection of an agency fee” from home health-care workers, paid by the state, “who do not want to join or support the union.” Lyle Denniston covered the opinion for this blog, and Mark Walsh provided a view from the Court. Other early coverage comes from Robert Barnes of The Washington Post; Brent Kendall and Melanie Trottman of The Wall Street Journal (subscription required); Peter Moskowitz at Al Jazeera America; Steven Greenhouse for The New York Times; Ed Pilkington at the Guardian; Stephanie Simon at Politico; Krishnadev Calamur at NPR; Michael Pearson and Bill Mears at CNN; Jaclyn Belczyk at Jurist; Mark Walsh at Education Week; and Daniel Fisher of Forbes. Commentary comes from Noah Feldman at Bloomberg View; Laurence Tribe at Slate; Ann Hodges at ACSblog; Ian Millhiser at Think Progress; Moshe Marvit at The New Republic; Taylor Malmsheimer at The New Republic; Doug Kendall at the Huffington Post; Bill Blum at TruthDig; Andrew Grossman for the Cato Institute; Walter Olson for the Cato Institute; Hera Arsen of Ogletree Deakins; Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times; Anya Kamenetz at NPR; and Alexander Volokh at the Reason Foundation.
Disclosure: Kevin Russell of Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, was among the counsel on an amicus brief in support of the respondent in Harris. However, the author of this post was not involved in the case.
