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Justice

Tea Party Senator Breaks With Top Romney Legal Adviser, Endorses Constitutional Right To Contraception

By Ian Millhiser on Aug 3, 2012 at 6:10 pm

Although GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has dodged questions about whether he believes the Constitution protects a woman’s right to use birth control, one of Romney’s top legal advisers is a leading opponent of the right to contraception. Robert Bork, the former federal judge who serves as co-chair of Romney’s Justice Advisory Committee, described the first Supreme Court case to protect access to contraception as “utterly specious” and a “time bomb.”

In a surprising departure from conservative orthodoxy, Tea Party Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) broke with Romney’s legal adviser yesterday, stating that the Constitution does indeed protect a right to birth control:

“I think some conservatives get this thing wrong. They say, ‘Oh you don’t have a right to privacy because it’s not in the Constitution.’ Well, there’s not a right to private property in the Constitution either,” the libertarian-leaning senator said. . . . “I would say there is a right to privacy. It precedes the Constitution, it pre-exists, it comes, if you believe in God, from your Creator. It comes in a natural way. It’s yours,” Paul said in a speech on Internet freedom at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Paul said he agrees with the landmark Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut, which first declared that the Constitution protects privacy and invalidated a state law banning access to contraceptives.

Paul’s statement contains a number of errors — the Fifth Amendment does explicitly protect certain private property rights, for example — but it is also a clear break from the views of many conservative legal thinkers, including one of Romney’s top advisers.

Update

It’s worth noting that Rand Paul’s stance also places him at odds with his father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who has repeatedly introduced legislation seeking to undermine the constitutional right to contraception.

Economy

Rubio’s Olympic Medal Bill Would Give Michael Phelps Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars In Tax Breaks

By Travis Waldron on Aug 3, 2012 at 6:05 pm

Rubio's tax plan would give Michael Phelps a tax break for eating Subway.

Americans for Tax Reform, the anti-tax group headed by activist Grover Norquist, caused a stir this week when it released a report detailing the supposed tax burden America’s Olympic athletes face on the prize money they receive for winning medals. The Olympians, ATR said, would owe “up to $9,000” in taxes on their medals and winnings, and that, the organization said, was a travesty — even though the money hardly differs from other prizes (like lottery winnings) that are taxed as normal income.

ATR’s analysis contained blatant falsehoods — Olympic medals are not subject to taxes, a fact confirmed both by the United States Olympic Committee and accountants who have handled Olympians’ taxes — but that didn’t stop anti-tax Republicans from leaping into action. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) proposed legislation that would exempt Olympic winnings from taxation, but in his haste, he created a loophole that would allow athletes with big endorsements to claim hundreds of thousands in tax breaks, as accountant K. Sean Packard writes at TaxTV’s blog:

Senator Rubio’s bill, if passed, would fully exempt “any prize or award won by the taxpayer in athletic competition in the Olympic Games.” Any agent worth his/her salt would ensure that most, if not all, endorsement contracts for an Olympian include hefty bonuses for medals. For Phelps, this would include bonuses from Subway, Hilton, Omega, Speedo, Visa, Proctor and Gamble and Under Armour, and at least three others. Lochte would receive bonuses from Sprint, Gatorage, Gillette, Nissan, Speedo, AT&T, Proctor and Gamble, Mutual of Omaha and Ralph Lauren. Assuming each of Phelps’ and Lochte’s endorsers match the USOC’s medal bonuses of $25,000, Phelps could receive $300,000 tax-free from the USOC and his eleven endorsers for each gold he wins (two as of this publication) and Lochte could receive $250,000 for each of his two golds. Lochte and Phelps also have two silvers each and Lochte a bronze and each will receive bonuses from the USOC and likely from endorsers for those.

In effect, a decent lawyer or tax accountant would be able to craft endorsement deals in a way that make large sums of compensation seem tied to Olympic performance, giving athletes like Phelps and Lochte huge tax breaks, all due to some faux outrage on the part of conservative tax activists.

NEWS FLASH

More Women Are Using The Most Effective Contraceptive, And Numbers Will Likely Keep Rising | The number of women using intrauterine devices (IUDs) as a form of birth control has doubled in just two years, according to a new study from the Guttmacher Institute, from 4 percent to 8.5 percent. Since one of the biggest barriers to IUD use is cost, that number will likely continue to climb as the full cost of IUDs will soon be covered by insurance companies thanks to the Affordable Care Act. All types, but not all brands, of the device and other contraceptives will be covered. Along with the high costs, IUDs, which are the most effective and long-lasting forms of birth control, have also been relatively unpopular in the United States because of mass confusion about potential for infection and infertility. While those risks are actually incredibly low, 30 percent of health care providers still believe that IUDs are dangerous.

NEWS FLASH

Michigan Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Ballot Petition’s Font Size | In a 4-3 ruling, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected an argument by proponents of Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) controversial emergency manager law that a repeal referendum should be blocked over the font size of the petitions used. Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, a group led by three prominent Michigan business association figures, had argued that the font used by those seeking repeal had been too small. The majority rejected the claim, deciding that group’s font was within legal specifications and voters will have their say on the repeal this November.

Alyssa

At London’s Olympics, The Female Athlete Triumphs

By Travis Waldron on Aug 3, 2012 at 5:17 pm

Gabby Douglas

The 2012 London Olympics were destined to be notable for female participation when, just weeks before the Games kicked off, three countries added women to their national teams and ensured that this would be the first time every country represented sent at least one woman to the Games. Female participation in the Olympics has increased steadily in recent decades, but even accounting for that, the sheer amount of women punching holes in the barriers that once existed is breathtaking.

The barrier-breaking began with star American soccer player Megan Rapinoe, who came out as gay before the Games began. In doing so, Rapinoe not only became one of the most prominent out athletes in American sports, she also gave fans an opportunity to examine the fact that, even though it may have been easy for Rapinoe to come out, being a gay female athlete isn’t as easy as we often make it out to be.

Then there’s Gabby Douglas, the affable gymnast with a trillion-dollar smile who became the first woman of color to win an individual all-around gold medal. In an American sports world where race sometimes seems irrelevant, Douglas is an African-American woman who dominated a lily-white sport — one that is so expensive that her mother had to take on extra work and sell “almost all” of her jewelry to keep her daughter in training. Douglas, at least for the American crowd, has become the darling of the Olympics, and her success will undoubtedly provide an avenue for African-Americans into gymnastics and other niche Olympic sports, a road paved by the likes of Dominique Dawes and others before her.

The story of the games, however, is Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani, the first Saudi woman to ever appear in the Olympics. Shahrkani’s Olympic dream lasted just more than a minute, but those 82 seconds shattered cultural barriers that will, hopefully, make it easier for Saudi women to play the games they love. ‘‘I am happy to be at the Olympics,’’ Shahrkani said after her judo match, according to the Associated Press. ‘‘Unfortunately, we did not win a medal, but in the future we will and I will be a star for women’s participation.’’

The stories of the Olympic woman hardly stop there. Female athletes from various countries and in numerous sports are proving that they belong not just in the Games but at the forefront, and the barriers to female participation seem to crumble a little more on each new day of competition.

There are, of course, still issues facing women in sports both at the Olympics and elsewhere. Shahrkani’s story aside, women are still largely prohibited from playing sports in Saudi Arabia. There are still huge socio-economic barriers preventing athletes from backgrounds similar to Douglas’ from making it to the Games. Unlike Rapinoe, too many women find it impossible to open up about their sexuality in the world of sports. Female athletes often still lack the notoriety and sponsorships that are more common for men, and sexism is still rampant both at the Olympics and in sports.

But these women and others are bringing those barriers down, making the world of sports a more open and equitable space for females of all shapes, colors, nationalities, and sizes. Because of that, it isn’t hard to imagine the London Olympics going down as an Olympiad remembered for the triumph of the Female Athlete.

LGBT

Herman Cain: Gays Protesting Chick-fil-A Are Just Seeking Attention

By Igor Volsky on Aug 3, 2012 at 5:00 pm

Herman Cain, the onetime GOP presidential frontrunner, weighed into the Chick-fil-A controversy during an appearance on Fox News on Friday and insisted that gay people are protesting the company’s opposition to equality for attention.

“This is simply an attempt on the part of the gay community to try and leverage their beliefs on another institution, a private company, since they can’t seem to get enough attention. That is what this is all about,” Cain told host Eric Bolling. Watch it:

Cain, who claimed that he spoke with Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy, said that the company’s sales exceeded $30 million during Wednesday’s “appreciation day,” “almost twice his previous high.” “They are going do take a lot of the excess profits they got on that day and contribute it to the charitable organizations they support in even bigger numbers,” Cain added.

The fast food chain has already donated millions of dollars to anti-gay organizations, including “reparative therapy” groups like Exodus International. Chick-fil-A is one of a very small number of major national companies that refuses to offer any employment protections to LGBT employees. In fact, the company received a 0 rating from the Human Rights Campaign and has a record of firing employees it believes engage in “sinful” behavior. Activists from across the country are protesting the company after its president condemned homosexuality in a recent radio interview.

On Thursday, Cain appeared on Fox News and praised Cathy for being “man enough and Christian enough” to oppose same-sex marriage.

Justice

President Obama Nominates Fifth Openly Gay Nominee To The Federal Bench

By Ian Millhiser on Aug 3, 2012 at 4:10 pm

Judicial Nominee Pamela Ki Mai Chen

Since taking office, President Obama has quadrupled the number of openly gay judges holding lifetime appointments to the federal bench, although this fact has as much to do with the poor record of past presidents in naming gay judges as it does with President Obama’s commitment to diversity. Before Obama took office, only one openly gay judge — Clinton appointee Deborah Batts — was an Article III federal judge.

Yesterday, Obama announced his fifth openly gay nominee to the federal bench, federal prosecutor Pamela Ki Mai Chen, who will join the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York if confirmed. Chen spent much of her career in civil rights enforcement, and is currently the Chief of the Civil Rights Section and Deputy Chief of the Public Integrity Section at a U.S Attorney’s office in New York.

Even if she is confirmed, however, gay Americans will remain massively underrepresented on the federal bench. Significantly, no openly gay judge has ever served on a United States Court of Appeals. Although President Obama nominated gay attorney Edward DuMont to a federal appeals court, DuMont eventually withdrew his nomination after he failed to receive a Judiciary Committee hearing in the face of Republican objections to his nomination.

Health

HIV Rate Rises In Uganda After AIDS Prevention Strategies Shifted Focus Abstinence-Only Policies

By Amanda Peterson Beadle on Aug 3, 2012 at 3:55 pm

Widowed by AIDS in Uganda.

Uganda had seen a sharp decrease in the nation’s AIDS rate, but after its decline in the 1990s inspired public health strategies to fight HIV infections, a new study shows that Uganda and Chad are the only two African nations where the number of AIDS cases is rising.

The HIV infection rate in Uganda grew from 6.4 percent in 2005 to 7.3 percent in 2012. But at roughly the same time, the United States spent about $1.7 billion to fight AIDS in Uganda through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which teamed up with faith-based groups in 2003 and emphasized abstinence. Instead of continuing Uganda’s decreasing number of HIV infections, the survey shows that the public health campaigns, including the PEPFAR-sponsored “Get Off the Sexual Network” message, may have backfired:

On one hand, 90 percent of Ugandans today acknowledge sexual fidelity in a relationship as a health imperative, according to the survey results; on the other hand, roughly 25 percent of married men said they had multiple sexual partners.

The survey found that 75 percent of Ugandans were knowledgeable about condoms in sexual health but that fewer than 8 percent of married men who were having sex outside their marriage were using condoms.

Uganda’s hard-line approach toward homosexuality, which is outlawed here, also fuels the spread of AIDS, experts say. One report indicated that one-third of the male respondents who had sex with other men said they had previously been married to women and fathered children. Fewer than half use condoms.

Pepfar’s founding policies barred partnering with organizations that did not condemn prostitution, and called for 33 percent of financing to be spent on abstinence and fidelity programs.

“If you have an environment that stigmatizes them, then don’t expect people to use condoms,” said Canon Gideon Byamugisha, a religious leader and AIDS activist in Uganda. Byamugisha told the New York Times that the country has “confusing” messages in its fight against HIV/AIDS.

When Congress reauthorized PEPFAR in 2008, the program dropped a directive to promote abstinence until marriage; however, it still emphasizes abstinence and fidelity. In his 2013 budget, President Obama requested $6.4 billion for PEPFAR.

Economy

Big Business Tries To Stop Florida Paid Sick Days Initiative Before It Even Reaches Ballot

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Aug 3, 2012 at 3:45 pm

Residents of Orange County, Florida, are trying to get an initiative on the November ballot that would require all businesses with more than 15 employees to provide paid sick days to their workers. Predictably, big businesses are joining forces and working hard to stop it.

More signatures are still needed before the Earned Sick Time for Employees initiative qualifies for the ballot. But even before the signatures could have been gathered, businesses in Orlando filed a legal complaint asking a court to issue an injunction against the proposal.

It’s not the first move by Orange County businesses to block this initiative. The Orlando Sentinel has uncovered several memos and opposition plans to try to combat the paid sick leave program.

This time, though, businesses are using the courts to try get their way. They claim that it isn’t clear whether charities, churches, and non-profits will be required to participate in the paid sick leave requirement. But those leading the paid sick days effort say that it is obvious that all those groups will be included:

“The petition leads voters to believe that its proposed ordinance will impose its sick-leave requirement only on businesses, which is far from true,” said Jacob Stuart, president of the Central Florida Partnership, adding that it would also apply to groups such as churches, charities and nonprofit hospitals.

Stephanie Porta, one of the activists leading the sick-time push, said the ballot language is not misleading and does not imply that employers such as religious, nonprofit and civic groups would be left out.

“This initiative has undergone thorough legal scrutiny, and we have had no objections raised by the County Commission or the Supervisor of Elections or anyone else,” Porta said. “Turning to the courts to slow down this effort is nothing more than a stalling tactic designed to stop Orange County voters from strengthening our local economy and providing stability to workers.”

Businesses are likely pointing to this specific issue because they think that paid sick leave will be less popular if people believe churches and non-profits are not exempt. But paid sick leave is hugely advantageous to employees and especially low-wage workers. And it’s beneficial to businesses in the long run, too. When workers don’t feel they have to come in sick, they don’t spread their illness to others. Plus, workers who take time off can recover more quickly and are thus more efficient.

Security

McCain: Military Spending Cuts Would ‘Literally’ Lead To An ‘Inability To Defend The Nation’

By Ben Armbruster on Aug 3, 2012 at 3:41 pm

Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have been at the forefront in trying to scare the public into thinking the automatic military spending cuts set to take effect in January will decimate the military (they won’t).

But the two Republican senators took their hysteria to a whole new level in an interview published today on the Newsmax website. In the 12 minute-long segment full of hyperbole and alarmist distortions, McCain said the defense sequester would “literally” — literally — prevent the United States from defending itself.

But that wouldn’t necessarily mean the U.S. would really lose all its weapons, ammo, fighter jets, helicopters, missile defense, nuclear weapons, etc. — would it? Yep. That is if you believe Lindsey Graham. Not only that, Graham says the sequester “would be the most destructive thing in the world(!)”:

MCCAIN: Those cuts in the words of the Secretary of Defense and all our uniformed leaders have said would jeopardize our national security. … Lindsey Graham and I and Kelly Ayotte and others are trying to warn the country of the devastating effects of this quote sequestration and, literally, our inability to defend the nation. …

GRAHAM: It would be, in the words of Leon Panetta, a brigade without bullets, a Navy without ships, an Air Force without trained pilots. It would be like shooting yourself in the head. It would be the most destructive thing in the world.

Watch the interview:

Now to be fair to Sens. McCain and Graham, it seems they may have learned a lot of this baseless hyperventilating from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. But neither he, nor they, have ever offered any specifics as to why the automatic military spending cuts would be so terrible.

There’s no doubt that sequestration — which is an across the board $500 billion cut to military spending over the next decade — is the wrong way to reduce the Pentagon’s bloated budget.

But the reality is that if the sequester were to take effect, the U.S. would be spending more on the military in 2013 than it did in 2006. Graham and McCain probably weren’t concerned about whether the United States could defend itself back then.

CAP’s Lawrence Korb yesterday debunked much of the frenzy surrounding the defense sequester, including the spurious warnings about job losses. Korb notes that those seeking alternatives to the “meat ax approach” of sequestration can take a look at a plan “laid out by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, would achieve the same level of required savings under the Budget Control Act, but implement the cuts more gradually.”

But ultimately, Korb notes, after sequestration, “the United States will still account for 40% of the world’s military expenditures — 70% if you combine that with what our allies spend.” That’s probably more than enough to defend a nation with.

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