We're currently waiting on the Supreme Court's decision, really two decisions about Donald
Trump's tax returns, and I'm hoping to have news about that either later on in today's
program or if not, we'll talk about it tomorrow on the Friday show with you.
But we do have a new Supreme Court decision to talk about that came out yesterday.
And if you've been following the Supreme Court for the last couple of weeks, you might be
aware that we had some reasonable decisions, some correct decisions from my perspective,
from the Supreme Court over the last few weeks.
But we did not get that yesterday.
The Supreme Court has sided seven to two with the Trump administration to allow employers
to deny access to employees of free contraceptive coverage if the reason for wanting to deny
free birth control is religious in nature.
And this is I mean, listen to the the the seven to two decision.
The seven majority each had varied, not all the same reasons why they were with the majority,
but the decision in and of itself is a huge win for the religious right.
And it is a loss for Obamacare as well.
It's a loss for secularism.
And it's certainly at least a win that the Trump administration can claim now that this
is one of the few wins that the Trump administration can claim as part of a bigger discussion about
what is the case to be made that Trump has accomplished anything and should be Iraq reelected?
Not not not what I almost said.
But that is really a case that Donald Trump has to make.
That's not a case for me to make.
But this is at least something that went his way.
The DOCA decision not going his way.
LGBT discrimination decision not going his way.
And the Trump administration has actually tried a number of different ways to hurt Obamacare
with different regulations.
One such regulation is that if you are a religious based employer, you now will be able to say
our employees, people who have health insurance under.
But as a result of working for us, they will no longer be able to get free birth control.
One of the things that Obamacare said was that birth control is free to the patient.
They must have full coverage of contraceptive services and products as part of their health
insurance plans.
Houses of worship, including churches, temples and mosques, were exempt from that requirement
from the get go.
Some people weren't.
We're not aware of that.
But a lot of nonprofit groups like schools, which could be religiously affiliated or based
hospitals, which could be religiously affiliated or based, were not exempt.
If you worked for them, they had to through their insurance coverage that you were offered
as an employee, had to offer contraceptive services at no cost.
Some of them objected right away and they said that goes against our religious beliefs.
How are we?
It is a violation of our freedom of religion to say we must allow we must provide no cost
at to the patient, of course, contraceptive services when we don't believe that those
should be something people avail themselves of on the basis of our religious beliefs.
In came the Trump administration and they said, we agree with the religious employers
requiring birth control coverage without cost burdens, the free exercise of religion.
They put in place some exemption rules were employers can say we opt out, their employees
can still get birth control, but it wouldn't be free of a cost through their health insurance
plan.
Now, since the Affordable Care Act requires it.
What that meant in practice is that the states where people live would have to pay.
And states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey said, hold on a second.
If employers are not required to provide this through their health insurance, we have to
pay for it.
And that's not fair to us, said Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
A lower court agreed with Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
That is the decision that has now been reversed by the Supreme Court.
The seven to two vote in the Supreme Court had Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor
as the only dissenters.
The majority said these restrictions put in place by the Trump administration are okay.
And for me, the major takeaway and what I want to remind you of is that this is another.
Explanation another way to remind ourselves that health insurance should not be tied to
employers, period.
That that's my takeaway.
And of course, you can fight the legal battle.
And that's exactly what the Trump administration did.
But at a higher level, health insurance tied to employers is the wrong direction.
And in terms of how far this goes, there is a slippery slope question here as well.
I mean, if you look at, I don't know, Christian Science, Christian Science is very much against
all sorts of medical care.
Would antibiotics be a legit exemption if they are religiously based?
If if Christian Science says, listen, we run this big Christian Science, you know, reading
room or whatever they call it, and we don't want to provide antibiotics with it.
We don't want antibiotics to be so accessible.
Would that be valid?
I mean, how far does this go now?
The estimates are that somewhere between 70 thousand and one hundred and twenty six thousand
women are going to lose contraceptive coverage as a result of this decision.
And what this really is is pointing back to is this is an administration, the Trump administration,
that has lost on policy.
Trump was going to repeal and replace Obamacare failed.
He was going to build the wall failed.
He was going to fix this.
Fix that.
Fix it.
He's failed on on essentially everything.
They are now fighting a culture war.
Remember that Donald Trump is not religious.
This is merely pandering.
And it is a win on paper for Donald Trump.
How much of a big deal he makes out of this win remains to be seen.
But this is a culture war.
If you look at the last six weeks, you know, the right loves to accuse the left of fighting
a culture war.
The reality is that it's Trump who, faced with losing on just about every policy issue,
is now talking about we've got to fight these radical Marxists.
Mark, there's barely any Marxists and certainly none in positions of power in the United States.
This is about our heritage.
Visa V monuments and the Confederate flag.
And it's about free speech.
These are culture war type battles.
And again, this you're not really damaging Obamacare in the sense of removing it the
way he wants to do.
You're just making life more difficult for seventy thousand to one hundred and twenty
six thousand more women.
And Trump, who is not religious, continues to pander to the religious right through these
types of arguments and regulations.
So that's what it all is really about.
There is stunning hypocrisy as well, because you block access to birth control.
But then do you do you provide parental leave, paid parental leave when the baby is born?
Many, many employers do not in this, certainly not mandated to, et cetera, et cetera.
I think you get the idea.
But at least on paper, it is a win for the Trump administration, a win that they desperately
need because these wins are so few and far between.