Viewpoints: Empty Supreme Court Seat Chance For Trump To Fight His Populist Instincts
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Los Angeles Times:
In Replacing Justice Kennedy, Trump Should Rein In His Partisan, Populist Tendencies
The retirement of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy after three decades on the Supreme Court presents President Trump with a fateful choice. He can nominate an extreme ideological conservative likely to receive only or mostly Republican votes in the U.S. Senate, pleasing his base but perpetuating the hyper-politicization of the court that reached its low point with the Republican Senate’s refusal in 2016 even to consider Merrick Garland, former President Obama’s third nominee to the court. Such a nominee would no doubt seek, if confirmed, to roll back Roe vs. Wade or to ease reasonable restrictions on guns or to weaken even further the nation’s campaign finance laws. (6/27)
Sacramento Bee:
Justice Kennedy Retires, Ending Era Of Sacramento Values On Supreme Court
Justice Anthony Kennedy, a native of Sacramento, brought his hometown’s pragmatism and values to the nation’s most powerful court. And that has mostly been good for California and America. Kennedy, 81, announced his retirement Wednesday, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its final decisions of the term. For more than a year, there had been speculation and discussion, but still, it felt like the end of an era. Perhaps that’s because it is. (6/27)
Sacramento Bee:
The Janus Ruling Doesn’t Have To Be Fatal For Public Sector Unions. Here’s How.
More than 7 million public sector union members in America are asking the same question now that the U.S. Supreme Court has forbidden their unions to collect mandatory fees: Is this the end of public employee unions? Not in the least. Pro-labor states can undo the Janus ruling by adopting a simple legislative workaround. (Tang, 6/27)
Sacramento Bee:
SCOTUS Ruling In Janus Frees Government Workers From Unions
Just in time for Independence Day, the U.S. Supreme Court has delivered millions into greater liberty – and a day of reckoning for public-sector union leaders. The court struck down as unconstitutional the arrangement – heretofore enshrined in law in 22 states – that forced government workers to pay union fees for the privilege of keeping their jobs. (Will Swaim, 6/27)
Sacramento Bee:
Supreme Court Janus Ruling Mutes California Unions
There is no sugar-coating Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision on public employee unions. The conservative majority’s 5-4 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME is a blow to the one sector of organized labor that still has significant clout. In that sense, it is also yet another blow to the American middle class and to efforts to close the gaping income disparities in this country. (6/27)
Sacramento Bee:
Supreme Court Ruling On Abortion And Free Speech Was A Win For Misinformation
There’s a reason California lawmakers in 2015 required “crisis pregnancy” centers to disclose if they’re unlicensed, and to post signs telling patients the state provides free or cheap “prenatal care and abortion for eligible women.” It’s the same reason the centers exist at all. Abortion. Federal law allows it, California protects the right to it and the centers – which are typically faith-based, unlicensed and offer no actual medical services – exist to talk pregnant women out of it, even if that sometimes means confusing them with misinformation. (6/26)
Los Angeles Times:
The Supreme Court Puts Religion-Based Dishonesty Above The Health And Welfare Of Vulnerable Pregnant Women
In 2014, a recent high school graduate named Dania Flores, posing as a pregnant teenager, visited 43 crisis pregnancy centers in California. What kind of care would they offer? How medically competent would they be? As Flores discovered, most crisis pregnancy centers are thinly disguised anti-abortion Christian ministries designed to steer women away from abortion. In the process they spew misinformation, if not downright lies. You will never hear in a crisis pregnancy center that a woman is far, far more likely to die of childbirth-related causes than abortion, which has an infinitesimal complication rate. (Robin Abcarian, 6/29)
CALMatters:
Abortion Notice Ruling A Victory For Free Speech
Californians of a liberal bent may not like it, but the U.S. Supreme Court this week struck an important blow for the constitutional right of free speech. It overturned a California law requiring clinics offering non-abortion alternative treatment to pregnant women to post notices telling them about the availability of abortions. (Dan Walters, 6/28)
Los Angeles Times:
I Was Separated From My Parents 50 Years Ago. The Trauma Has Marked The Rest Of My Life
Despite changes in White House policy, there are thousands of children separated from their immigrant parents — some under a year old at so-called tender age shelters — and no concrete plans for how they will be reunited. The trauma those children are suffering remains far from over. (Margareta Larsson, 6/22)
Los Angeles Times:
Well-Meaning Proposals To Change California's Mental Health Law Fall Short
At the core of the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles and around California is the simple fact that thousands of people spend their nights beneath overpasses, beside freeways and on the street because they cannot afford other places to live. There is a significant subset that is homeless because mental illness leaves them incapable of doing much of the day-to-day business of living beyond finding a place to sleep, something to wear and a little to eat; but for most of those street-dwellers as well, the problem is essentially the same: There is no other place for them to go. (6/23)
The Mercury News:
From America's War On Poverty To A War On The Poor
Without health care, financially strapped parents have no choice but to put their health on the backburner as they deal with immediate issues like jobs, paying rent and putting food on the table. Consequently, they may wait to seek health care until their health reaches a crisis stage, which leads to the most expensive, and least effective, form of health care. (Anna Roth, 6/27)
Los Angeles Times:
The Last Thing L.A. Should Be Spending Resources On Is Rousting Homeless People From The Sidewalks
The bigger issue here is whether the city will use the construction of a modest number of housing units as an excuse to start rousting homeless people off streets across Los Angeles at night. That’s the last thing the city should be doing right now. Whether the city has reached what amounts to an arbitrary number of housing units set 11 years ago, there are still — and this should not come as a news flash to city officials — thousands more homeless people than there are available housing units or beds in decent shelters. And until we can solve that problem, police should not be breaking up homeless encampments wholesale at night. (6/26)
Sacramento Bee:
California's SB 1152 Helps Homeless Patients Discharged From Hospitals
Often, discharged patients are dropped off at homeless facilities by ambulance or Uber or Lyft, many still in hospital gowns. ...Being discharged to the streets without a plan not only hinders recovery, but often makes the health issues worse, resulting in readmission to the hospital, or worse. (Sharad Jain, 6/22)
The Jose Mercury News:
Time To Admit Criminal Reform Change Isn't Working
The Bay Area News Group editorial board recently lauded Californians for taking a “leap of faith” in 2014 and voting to reduce the penalties for certain crimes. From a police chief’s perspective, Proposition 47 has been an ill-conceived measure that has increased property crimes, decreased participation in proven drug rehabilitation programs and is now the subject of a ballot initiative to address the unintended consequences. (David Swing, 6/28)
Sacramento Bee:
California Soda Tax Ban Is A New Backroom Low
As the CEO of the American Heart Association, I’ve seen my fair share of industry efforts to oppose health initiatives and protect their profits.California Senate Bill 872 is one of the worst. The bill would prevent Californians and their local elected officials from enacting measures they feel are necessary to protect the health of their communities and allow public investments in critical local programs. (Brown, 6/26)
The Mercury News:
Drink Industry’s Devious Move To Stop Soda Taxes
In a devious political move, the beverage industry is leveraging California’s new initiative rules to extract legislation banning more cities from taxing soda pop. The scheme has left taxpayer groups that had lent support to an initiative campaign sitting on the sidelines, the League of California Cities reluctantly conceding defeat and health advocates who back soda taxes furious. (Daniel Borenstein, 6/27)