John Hinderaker at PowerLine reports on the two Supreme
Court decisions:
POSTED ON JUNE 30, 2014 BY JOHN HINDERAKER
Conservative Supreme
Court Majority Prevails In Two Key Cases
Today the Supreme Court issued its last two opinions of the
term. Justice Alito delivered both opinions, and both were decided on 5-4
votes. Both decisions were eagerly awaited. In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Court ruled that as
applied to closely held corporations, the the contraceptive mandate imposed on
employers by Obamacare violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. In Harris v. Quinn, the Court held that the First
Amendment prohibits the collection of an “agency fee” to pay for union
activities from home health care workers who do not want to join or support the
union.
Both of these cases have been viewed as highly significant; Harris, for example, has been characterized as a
potential death blow to the union movement. We will have more to say about
these decisions after having had an opportunity to study the opinions, but my
preliminary impression is that in both cases, the Court ruled narrowly. For
example, it did not reach Hobby Lobby’s First Amendment arguments, and it applied Harris only to home health care workers who work
for the people they care for, and not to “full-fledged” public employees. It
may be that neither is as much a landmark decision as conservatives had hoped,
or as liberals had feared.
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