FOR CONTRACEPTION, IT’S CHURCH OVER STATE | Anita Hill Can Tell Us Something About Weinstein Scandal
October 12, 2017
BETTING ON THE BANK
|Yesterday, the justices seemed open to barring entirely lawsuits that are brought in federal court based on human rights abuses abroad and have corporations as the defendants. The high court was hearing a case involving allegations that the Arab Bank Plc helped finance militant attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories. CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS and JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO, both conservatives, indicated that U.S. foreign policy tensions that could arise from such cases would be a reason to curb corporate liability. JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY, who often casts the deciding vote in big cases, also appeared sympathetic to the bank’s arguments.
TOP-ED
|In The New York Times, Linda Greenhouse opines that when it comes to contraception, church comes before state in this country. She notes, “I used to think — in fact, I wrote last year — that the resistance to the contraception mandate was fueled by cultural conservatives’ determination not to let federal policy normalize birth control. But now I think it’s deeper than that. Conservatives, even the publicly pious ones, don’t seem to have a problem with limiting the size of their families. The problem they have is with what birth control signifies: empowering women — in school, on the job, in the home — to determine their life course. That’s what they don’t want to normalize. It comes as no surprise which side DONALD TRUMP is on; his administration’s action last week makes perfect sense. Or none at all.”
A SCOTUS PLEA
|Attorneys for ROBERT PRUETT, an inmate convicted of a prison guard’s death, are asking the Supreme Court to halt his execution scheduled for this evening. The lawyers request that justices review whether lower courts properly denied a federal civil rights lawsuit that sought additional DNA testing in the case. They are also questioning whether a prisoner who claims actual innocence, as Pruett does, can be put to death.
POWER AND SEX
|In the face of the HARVEY WEINSTEIN scandal—the worst kept secret in Hollywood, it seems—Nell Scovell in The Washington Post turns to the testimony of ANITA HILL to find some perspective and clarity on the role of gender and power dynamics when it comes to sexual harassment, and even assault, in the workplace. Scovell: “I was riveted by Hill’s honesty, bravery and poise. At one point, SEN. DENNIS DECONCINI (D-Ariz.) said he couldn’t understand why she hadn’t quit her job if her boss made the workplace so uncomfortable. ‘Well, I think it is very difficult to understand, senator,’ Hill answered. She explained that she stayed ‘because I wanted to do the work… and I did not want to let that kind of behavior control my choices.’ The desire to keep doing what we love supersedes the desire to penalize bad behavior.”
OTHER NEWS
Supreme Court Ruling Threatens to Derail Case Against Menendez
The New York Times“After federal prosecutors rested their case in the corruption trial of Senator Robert Menendez on Wednesday, the federal judge presiding over the trial raised critical questions into one of the core tenets of the government’s case against the New Jersey senator, citing a United States Supreme Court decision that overturned the conviction of the Bob McDonnell, a former governor of Virginia.”
No Constitutional Right to Sell Firearms. Will the Supreme Court Care?
Slate“The 9–2 ruling is a victory for gun safety advocates who feared judicial aggrandizement of the right to bear arms could invalidate myriad laws governing firearm commerce. The decision may be imperiled, however, if the plaintiffs appeal to the Supreme Court, where conservative justices are increasingly eager to expand the scope of the Second Amendment.”