Published: mic (October 19, 2013)
You may not have realized it, but October has been a portentous month in the fight for gay marriage rights. Let’s go through the list:
-Most pressingly, the Supreme Court of New Jersey rejected Governor Chris Christie’s effort to block same-sex marriages, thereby affirming a ruling by a state Superior Court judge last month that declared a civil-union law to be an unconstitutional infringement of the rights of the state’s gay couples.
Published: mic (February 4, 2013), The Morning Call (February 4, 2013)
When Barack Obama mentioned the Stonewall protests in his inaugural address last week, he did more than place gay rights in the same breath as the struggles for women’s equality (his mention of the Seneca Falls convention) and desegregation (his mention of the Selma marches).
Published: PolicyMic (June 28, 2012)
Two months ago, in my editorial detailing the positive legacy President Obama will leave behind at the end of his first term, I deliberately avoided mentioning his health care reform bill, given that it was at that time “on the Supreme Court chopping block.” Now that it has been officially deemed constitutional, I think it is important to note the two-fold impact it will have on Obama’s historical reputation:
1.... Read Original Article
As the Supreme Court prepares to start its hearings on President Barack Obama’s health care reform legislation (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA), it makes sense that conservatives and libertarians are eager for the case to proceed as quickly as possible. After all, any ruling issued before November 2012 will constitute some manner of victory for their cause: A complete overturning of the bill will be celebrated as a vindication of the anti-PPACA position and a humiliation for Obama, a complete upholding of it can be used to freshly galvanize the right-wing base against the president (especially given the failure of party frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum to accomplish that task), and a ruling rejecting the individual mandate while maintaining the rest of the measure would force Obama into a fight with Congress over an alternative to the mandate (of which there are at least nine), one that could be used to paint him in an unflattering light at the height of the election season.