U.S. Supreme Court Issues Decisions on ACA "Obamacare" and Same-Sex Marriage;
Monday it Will Decide "Gerrymandering" Case;
Congress Gives Obama "Fast-Track" Authority on TPP
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| U. S. Supreme Court Justices 2015 |
June 27, 2015
John A. Smith, Founder, Editor
Facebook Page: StoptheObstructionistsTeaParty
Two Hugh Decisions By the U.S. Supreme Court This Week: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and Same-Sex Marriage
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| In the 5-4 ruling, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority with the four liberal justices. Each of the four conservative justices wrote their own dissent. |
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Same-Sex marriage licenses shall be issued, and as such, same-sex marriages shall be recognized by all 50 states. The summary in OBERGEFELL ET AL.v HODGES, DIRECTOR, OHIO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, ET AL held that: The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State.
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| Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy — who is often the Court’s swing vote — and the four liberal justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan were in the majority. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the dissent, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. |
On Thursday, June 25, 2015, The U.S. Supreme Court decided KING ET AL. v. BURWELL, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, ET AL. This summary explains that this case: First, the Act adopts the guaranteed issue and community rating requirements. Second, the Act generally requires individuals to maintain health insurance coverage or make a payment to the IRS, unless the cost of buying insurance would exceed eight percent of that individual’s income. And third, the Act seeks to make insurance more affordable by giving refundable tax credits to individuals with household incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty line. In addition to those three reforms, the Act requires the creation of an “Exchange” in each State—basically, a marketplace that allows people to compare and purchase insurance plans. The Act gives each State the opportunity to establish its own Exchange, but provides that the Federal Government will establish “such Exchange” if the State does not. Relatedly, the Act provides that tax credits “shall be allowed” for any “applicable taxpayer, but only if the taxpayer has enrolled in an insurance plan through “an Exchange established by the State under B(b)–(c).
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| An example of Gerrymandering: On the left district lines are drawn geographically, each party has equal chance for the vote. On the right, lines have been redrawn, "gerrymandered" and the pink dot party will win 3 out of 4 districts, therefore win all electoral votes for that state even though the same number of voters voted in both examples. |
Coming Soon To The U.S. Supreme Court: Monday, June 29, 2015; Gerrymandering (The Redistricting of Congressional Districts To Give One Party An Unfair Advantage
Arizona State Legislature, Appellant v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission Et al is also extremely important if we are to work toward fair elections. Redistricting, or "Gerrymandering" is a way that certain State Legislatures use how they draw the voting district lines to help them win elections. Redistricting is the way in which we adjust the districts that determine who represents us. This case was filed on April 28, 2014. It was was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 2, 2015. It is scheduled to issue the court's decision on Monday, June 29, 2015.
How districts are drawn and who gets to control the process is something of the utmost importance. And because the outcome of this case will set national precedence, the ramifications of a ruling either way will be felt for a very, very long time.In an article, Supreme Court Will Rule In AZ Redistricting Case Monday—Here’s What You Need to Know in the Phoenix New Times by
Every 10 years, following the national census, Arizona redraws its two voting district maps—one for the nine U.S. Congressional delegates, and one for the 90 state legislators. Until 2000, the job of delineating districts fell on the state Legislature to figure out.
But since elected officials in this state are almost always Republicans, some people started getting upset that one party held all of the redistricting power and could manipulate boundaries to benefit their own party and retain control. (This process is called gerrymandering.)
In 2000, Arizona voters approved Proposition 106, which took away the map-drawing power from the Legislature and gave it to an independent bi-partisan group called the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. The AIRC is comprised of two Democrats, two Republicans, and one Independent, and is tasked with deciding voter districts based the following criteria:
- That the boundaries of both congressional and legislative districts
be “contiguous, geographically compact, and respect communities of
interest—all to the extent practicable;”
- That district lines follow “visible geographic features, city, town, and county boundaries, and undivided census tracts;”
- And perhaps most importantly, that "competitive districts be favored where doing so would not significantly detract from the goals above.”
ger·ry·man·der
ˈjerēˌmandər/
verb
gerund or present participle: gerrymandering
manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.
achieve (a result) by manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency.
"a total freedom to gerrymander the results they want"
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| The TPP is a massive, controversial "free trade" agreement currently being pushed by big corporations and negotiated behind closed doors by officials from the United States and 11 other countries – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. |
Last week 28 Democrats in the House of Representatives and 13 U.S. Senators in the Senate voted to give Fast Track Authority to President Obama to negotiate the TPP. What does this mean?
Public Citizen at Citizen.org/Fast Track describes it this way. Fast Track was an extreme and rarely-used procedure initially created by President Richard Nixon to get around public debate and congressional oversight. Fast Track is how we got into the job-killing, wage-flattening North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Thanks to Fast Track, NAFTA and the WTO included terms that promote the offshoring of U.S. jobs to low-wage countries.
President Obama resorted to asking Congress to give him extreme Fast Track authority to try to railroad into place job-killing trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
After dogged, diverse grassroots pressure delivered major blows to Fast Track, proponents used procedural gimmicks to pass Fast Track through Congress by a one-vote margin. Anger about Fast Track's underhanded passage will fuel the unprecedented movement fighting to stop the TPP.
YOU Can let YOUR Representatives Know What YOU Think
To FIND, and CONTACT, YOUR State Legislators enter your Zip Code at: Vote Smart
To FIND, and CONTACT, YOUR U.S. Congressmen/women enter your Zip Code at: Congress.gov
To FIND, and CONTACT, YOUR U.S. Senators enter your Zip Code at: Senate.gov
I have provided the links above to assist you in finding and contacting YOUR Representatives simply by typing in your zip code at those sites. By contacting them by phone or e-mail you will let them know that you ARE paying attention to what they are doing, and what YOU want them to do.
The fact that multinational corporations are going to be using arbitrators in countries like Vietnam and others to get the things that they want, and those decisions that are made can not be challenged in American courts, ABSOLUTELY show us that creating and holding on to good paying jobs is not in the interests of these corporations that will avail themselves of the provisions in the TPP. We will not gain from giving the corporations who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying for the TPP and other laws and policies that will do nothing for the people but plenty for increasing their profits. We will be losing the little fragments of manufacturing that are left to child and slave labor in other countries.
It's issues like this that I feel WE MUST ACT ON. The only way we can have ANY influence on the "bought and paid for" politicians (on both sides) is to absolutely FLOOD their phone lines and e-mails to let them know that enough people are aware of how they are voting on bills, what actions they are taking, and that this particular issue (whichever one it may be) is one that is important to us. You can TRACK your Representatives, and specific legislation (bills) on the sites that the links above lead you to. You can see how they voted on any bill. They must know that they WILL be fired at the next election if they don't represent you well. But for that to be effective we need people, like YOU, to do their part, and there in lies the challenge. Sometimes it only takes a couple hundred calls to a local office, sometimes they are forced to deal with systems crashing because millions of e-mails have overloaded their capabilities. Either way they have no choice but to take notice when an issue is one that people feel strongly about. Please, if you feel that the TPP trade deal, and "Fast-tracking" is NOT to your benefit CONTACT your Representatives. If you are in one of the States where those 28 Congressmen/women or 13 Senators are that voted to give fast-track authority to the President, let them know that they messed up, and will be fired in the election if they don't represent what YOU want. I always put the links (above) so that people who may not be aware of who exactly represents them in their districts, counties, States, can easily find out not only who their Representatives are, but exactly how to contact them. And all you need to do to become active is go the sites that the links above will bring you to and enter your zip code, these sites will tell you everything about the people who are in public office to represent YOU! This is just one of many articles that you can search out to better understand what the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is: https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp
Thirteen Senate Democrats on Tuesday helped advance fast-track trade
powers for President Barack Obama after overcoming their own concerns
about whether a related aid bill for workers would pass the
Republican-controlled Congress.
The final tally on the procedural vote for granting Obama trade promotion authority was 60-37. Five Republicans — including two running for president — broke with the GOP and voted against advancing the bill.
The final tally on the procedural vote for granting Obama trade promotion authority was 60-37. Five Republicans — including two running for president — broke with the GOP and voted against advancing the bill.
The 13 Democrats were:
• Michael Bennet, Colorado
• Maria Cantwell, Washington
• Tom Carper, Delaware
• Chris Coons, Delaware
• Dianne Feinstein, California
• Heidi Heitkamp, North Dakota
• Tim Kaine, Virginia
• Claire McCaskill, Missouri
• Patty Murray, Washington
• Bill Nelson, Florida
• Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire
• Mark Warner, Virginia
• Ron Wyden, Oregon
Republicans who voted against advancing the fast-track bill were:
• Susan Collins, Maine
• Ted Cruz, Texas
• Rand Paul, Kentucky
• Jeff Sessions, Alabama
• Richard Shelby, Alabama
Those
were the same senators who voted against the measure in late May, with
the exception of Cruz, who announced his reversal Tuesday morning.
(Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah was also a “no” vote in May, but he
did not vote Tuesday.)
Now, House Democrats will have to choose whether to try and block worker
aid again, even though the fast-track bill is likely to become law
regardless of how they vote on TAA. Critics have said doing so would be
tantamount to punishing laid-off workers because Democrats lost the
bigger political fight.
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