The Hobby Lobby Ruling Is A Slippery Slope That Will Affect More Than Contraceptives

The Hobby Lobby Ruling Is A Slippery Slope That Will Affect More Than Contraceptives

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If you haven't read Justice Ginsburg's dissent in the Hobby Lobby case you really should.  She makes excellent points - points that demonstrate how this ruling will extend beyond contraceptives.
In a decision of startling breadth, the Court holds that commercial enterprises, including corporations, along with partnerships and sole proprietorships, can opt out of any law (saving only tax laws) they judge incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs.
She's correct, of course.  No matter how the majority opinion tried to limit this ruling to controlling women (and Alito didn't even bother to explain why this ruling was limited) it opens the door to every company's "sincerely held religious beliefs".  How could it not?
How The GA Passed Energy Efficiency w/o Passing HB 179

How The GA Passed Energy Efficiency w/o Passing HB 179

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This is awesome, just the kind of stuff I love. You will no doubt recall, through the writings of Cassandra and others, that Delaware utilities currently cannot offer their customers consumer conservation programs that would save the consumer money and reduce energy usage. You also know that a bill designed to permit utilities to offer these programs was buried in the Senate Energy Committee, where it had languished for over a year under the watchful eye of SEU founder and Senator Harris McDowell. Which brings us to last night, and, for that matter, this morning. At 3:21:05 am, to be  precise. No, Sen. McDowell did not relent, nor did he release HB 179 from committee. So, how did this get done?

Why Isn’t John Carney Supporting H.R.1852, the Email Privacy Act?

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Since the Supremes pretty clearly told law enforcement that they needed to get a warrant to search your cell phone, there has been renewed attention on H.R.1852, the Email Privacy Act. Introduced by Representative Kevin Yoder [R-KS-3] in May 2013, this law would revise the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, requiring subpoenas to search emails, no matter how long they had been stored (they can now look at email stored for more then 180 days without a warrant) and allowing ISPs to communicate to the targets that their emails were requested by law enforcement. As of this writing (6.29.2014), John Carney has not joined the 220 Representatives (138 R, 82 D -- BIPARTISANSHIP!) who are looking to refine the due process around law enforcement looking at your emails.

Sunday Open Thread [6.29.14]

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I had a great time last night and it was great to see everyone! Hope we'll do another DL get-together soon. Here are two long reads for this great Sunday Morning -- this piece (in Politico, but may be the best thing they've ever published) is from Nick Hanauer -- firmly ensconced in the 1% -- talking about the trainwreck to come if income inequality isn't dealt with. This is a brilliant -- and scathing -- piece. He reminds us that this kind of income inbalance is at the fulcrum of alot of painful upheaval, that supply-side economics isn't working, and that those business interests who continue to agitate for supply-side policy are arguing for long-term failure.
But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution. [...]

The case for Chip Flowers

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There is no case for voting for Chip Flowers. However, I think there can be a case for voting against Sean Barney. For all his merits (and his merits are many) he is still a Carper man through and through. Do we really need anther mobbed up Carper guy on a glide path to the promised land of corporate back-scratch-a-palooza? I probably will not run against Carney. I don't have the guts or the time. If I don't run, I will not have any way to register my disgust with the corporatist Democrats who run Delaware. The one vanishingly small gesture I can make is to vote against Tom Carper's pick for treasurer.