Obama's Disappointing Year at the Supreme Court

Reason ^ | July 1, 2014 | Damon Root

[shepardspie33]

The U.S. Supreme Court went out with a bang on Monday, ending its 2013-2014 term with Justice Samuel Alito's majority opinion in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., in which the Court held that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act violated federal law by placing a substantial burden on the exercise of religion when it required two "closely held" private corporations to cover certain forms of birth control in their employee health plans.

It was a painful legal defeat for the Obama administration—and it was not the only such defeat in recent days. In fact, in the past month alone, the White House has suffered a series of embarrassing losses at the Supreme Court, where it failed to prevail on issues ranging from the scope of the Fourth Amendment to the limits of executive power. To make matters worse, the president lost all but one of those cases by a vote of 9-0. Here's a quick recap of Obama's dismal finish this year at the Supreme Court.

Bond v. United States

Obama's troubles began on June 2 with the Supreme Court's unanimous ruling in Bond v. United States. At issue was the criminal prosecution of a woman named Carol Ann Bond, who was sentenced to six years in federal prison under the Chemical Weapons Implementation Act for smearing two toxic substances on the mailbox, door knob, and car door of a woman who had been carrying on an affair with Bond's husband. The victim suffered only a minor burn to her hand.

[Paul46360]

Does Barry care..NO..as the King he won't..as long as Valerie Jarrett is at his side..

[molson209]

Well Barry does have the WORST LAWYERS in the World

[Gen.Blather]

Given the record of the four uber-liberals that many 9-0 decisions is not a court-slap it’s a b*tchslap. The Saul Alinsky hippies who have taken over the administration would have defecated in their pants if the Bush administration had tried to do the things they tried to do, but now that they’re in power they’d impose a terrifying Gestapo-like government on us all. Using an international weapons treaty on the trailer park woman who tried to burn her rival with chemicals is astonishing. (This, by the way, is why I fear the UN Small Arms treaty. It would allow our trading partners to punish us by putting tariffs on our trade goods because a gun used to shoot somebody in London was traced to Joe’s Guns in Peoria. More stateist overreach.)

[Blood of Tyrants]

Hobby Lobby didn’t object because they opposed providing birth control for women. They objected because some of the drugs they would be forced to finance caused abortions in pregnant women.