One of my political fears is that if a Democrat does not get into the White House next year, we may have a totally conservative, right wing, Christian Supreme Court and then all hell will break loose as far as our “Rights” are concerned.
My fears are based on the fact that the conservative judges are all relatively young (Alito, Roberts, Scalia & Thomas) and will be on the bench forever while the so-called liberals and moderates are older than the hills and will either die in office or become senile and have to be replaced which under a Republican president will mean most likely, more conservative young judges.
I realize that not all judges starting out conservative end up that way. There are examples of judges that felt a certain freedom of conscience once they made the high court bench. They turned out to be actually quite moderate, willing to examine each issue on the basis of the Constitution and not on the conservative ideology that got them appointed in the first place.
Recently, our Supreme Court opened a new season and the first few cases where quite a pleasant surprise for me – am I judging them too harshly too soon?
The cases were “religious” cases or “Church-State” cases and I thought – here we go, back to the dark ages and damn the Constitution.
The Supreme Court justices actually did not “decide” these cases but they refused to hear them which means they let stand the lower court’s decision.
The first one involved “Catholic Charities” which employs and services people of all faiths. The medical insurance coverage they provided their employees did not cover contraception. New York State law mandates that health insurance plans must cover a variety of female specific issues such as contraception, cervical cancer screening, mammography, etc.
Catholic Charities, joined by other religious groups protested the violation of their First Amendment rights to practice their religion as they see fit. The court (6-0) said you are NOT a church but a social organization employing and servicing a variety of people of various faiths or non-faiths so OBEY THE LAW!
In the second case a religious group wanted to use rooms in a public library to hold their religious services just like other community groups hold their activities in rooms provided by the library. The library said no and the court upheld their decision stating that allowing the group to hold religious services in the library constituted tax payer subsidy of religious exercises / practices.
Educational, cultural and community based programs are OK but NOT religious services.
I applaud the courts for recognizing the separation of Church and State mandate in our Constitution and not allowing religions to worm their way into the “public” domain – practice your religion all you want just stay in your place!
My fears are based on the fact that the conservative judges are all relatively young (Alito, Roberts, Scalia & Thomas) and will be on the bench forever while the so-called liberals and moderates are older than the hills and will either die in office or become senile and have to be replaced which under a Republican president will mean most likely, more conservative young judges.
I realize that not all judges starting out conservative end up that way. There are examples of judges that felt a certain freedom of conscience once they made the high court bench. They turned out to be actually quite moderate, willing to examine each issue on the basis of the Constitution and not on the conservative ideology that got them appointed in the first place.
Recently, our Supreme Court opened a new season and the first few cases where quite a pleasant surprise for me – am I judging them too harshly too soon?
The cases were “religious” cases or “Church-State” cases and I thought – here we go, back to the dark ages and damn the Constitution.
The Supreme Court justices actually did not “decide” these cases but they refused to hear them which means they let stand the lower court’s decision.
The first one involved “Catholic Charities” which employs and services people of all faiths. The medical insurance coverage they provided their employees did not cover contraception. New York State law mandates that health insurance plans must cover a variety of female specific issues such as contraception, cervical cancer screening, mammography, etc.
Catholic Charities, joined by other religious groups protested the violation of their First Amendment rights to practice their religion as they see fit. The court (6-0) said you are NOT a church but a social organization employing and servicing a variety of people of various faiths or non-faiths so OBEY THE LAW!
In the second case a religious group wanted to use rooms in a public library to hold their religious services just like other community groups hold their activities in rooms provided by the library. The library said no and the court upheld their decision stating that allowing the group to hold religious services in the library constituted tax payer subsidy of religious exercises / practices.
Educational, cultural and community based programs are OK but NOT religious services.
I applaud the courts for recognizing the separation of Church and State mandate in our Constitution and not allowing religions to worm their way into the “public” domain – practice your religion all you want just stay in your place!
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