Intermarkets' Privacy Policy Support
Donate to Ace of Spades HQ! Contact
Ace:aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com Recent Entries
Daily Tech News 1 February 2025
The Fault, Dear Brutus, Is Not In Our Stars, But In Our ONT Fri-YAY!!! Cafe Karoline Leavitt: Many Media People In This Very Room Attacked Trump as a "Conspiracy Theorist" and Lied About Covid's Origins The Trump Administration Keeps Giving the Media Simple, Direct, Candid, Straightforward Answers. The Media Keeps Rejecting These Answers and Demanding Different Answers. Update: FBI Firings Yuger Than First Reported Trump Orders Senior FBI Officials to Retire, Resign, or Be Fired By Monday CBS's Parent Corporation Paramount In Talks to Settle Trump's $10 Billion Election Interference Claim, Based on the Deceptive Editing of Kamala Harris's Word Salad Fake Interview Under Pressure From Voters, Newsom Walks Back His Plan to Spend $50 Million of Taxpayer Money to Sue Trump for... Whatever Trump Appoints New Acting Head of FAA Buh Bye: Chuck Todd Gonezers at MSNBC Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024 Captain Hate 2023 moon_over_vermont 2023 westminsterdogshow 2023 Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022 Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022 redc1c4 2021 Tami 2021 Chavez the Hugo 2020 Ibguy 2020 Rickl 2019 Joffen 2014 AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups
|
« AoSHQ Podcast: Guest, Charles C. W. Cooke |
Main
| Wow »
March 28, 2014
Embarrassing: Jeffrey Toobin Falls to New Levels of Incompetent HackeryThe Hobby Lobby case is kind of a first amendment/religion clause case. Kind of. Because there is a law that provides actual statutory language to the vague provision in the Constitution -- the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed by Bill Clinton, which had been passed unanimously in the House, and which sailed through the Senate with the lopsided vote of 97-3. Hobby Lobby's actual claims are made under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, not the First Amendment. The First Amendment lurks in the background of the case -- the First Amendment is the reason for the RFRA, after all -- but the actual claims are made under the RFRA. Does Jeffrey Toobin know about this law? Does he know it exists? Does he know that Hobby Lobby has made its claims based on the authority of the RFRA, not the First Amendment generally? He appears to not know any of this, or, at the very least, he feels compelled to withhold this information from his readers. He writes with characteristic arrogance about the case, but fails to mention -- even once -- the law under which Hobby Lobby makes its claim. Althouse calls this "deceptive." I'm not convinced he's smart enough to qualify as deceptive. When a dog poops on your couch, that's not dishonest. That's just not knowing any better. How can you write about the Hobby Lobby case without mentioning the Religious Freedom Restoration Act? It's blatantly, atrociously deceptive. Toobin proclaims that "The issue in the case is straightforward." Yeah, I guess it is when you don't bother to mention the statute the claim is based on. Toobin mentions the other statute, the Affordable Care Act itself, and he asserts that it "requires employers who provide health insurance to their employees to include coverage for contraception." Well, actually, no, it doesn't! Congress did not take the political heat of dealing with contraception (which includes some methods some people think are abortifacients). Congress avoided that static as it pushed through a law by the narrowest possible margin. It left it to HHS to make the regulations that are under consideration. While Toobin's "analysis" is as vapid and superficial as anything Maureen Dowd ever wrote, he does manage to offer up a keen legal insight into Tuesday's oral arguments-- his opinion that the "three female justices" "rocked" it. You know, my former take was that I was somewhat anti-elitist. But here's my new take: Elitism hasn't even been given a fair shot yet. Because these people who currently occupy elite positions...? Are not elite. Who knows what would happen if these thick-witted, ignorant chair-holder-downers were pushed aside in favor of someone who knew what the hell they were talking about. There's actually an update to this story, which Althouse published yesterday. Today, Toobin's piece contains this new bit, which does mention the RFRA: Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who was defending the law, invested heavily in the argument that for-profit companies like Hobby Lobby simply do not have rights to religious expression under the First Amendment. “It seems to me that it would be such a vast expansion of what Congress must—could have thought it was doing, in 1993, when it enacted R.F.R.A.—to say that for-profit corporations can make claims for religious exemptions to any laws of general application that they want to challenge,” he said, referring to a law on religious expression that Hobby Lobby had cited. But the Justices (even Kagan) didn’t seem to be buying that claim entirely, so he moved on to defending the rights of the women employees to health care. The New Yorker now explains:
I presume these erroneously-omitted words concerned the RFRA. Well okay. For an analysis that does include the RFRA, and does not include any firm opinions on which female justices may or may not have "rocked" it in the oral arguments, see Volokh for an expert on the Religion clause. The analysis is very thorough. Why, if I were Jeffrey Toobin, I might even say the writer "rocked" the legal analysis. Here's one small part of it: 2. Does the government have a compelling interest in protecting the statutory rights of Hobby Lobby’s employees? The government interest in employer-subsidized Plan B is so "compelling" that the government forgot to mention it in the law that supposedly requires it. An executive agency created the "statutory" right to a subsidy. Somehow.
| Recent Comments
Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK):
"You're right on time, Blond M.
Good Night ever ..."
IRONGRAMPA: "Made a small cherry pie from scratch the other day ..." Blonde Morticia: "Hi, everyone! Am I late? ..." apply for jordan e-visa: "I used to be recommended this website through my c ..." JQ: "Thanks, Adriane. Better than before, for sure. ..." Adriane the Bah Humbug Critic . . . : "Iirc - fish eyes are a source of fresh water when ..." Adriane the Bah Humbug Critic . . . : "JQ - hope you are getting some good sleep … ..." JQ: "The eyes. Dad ate them and smiled and said than ..." discount nitro golf balls: "Hey very interesting blog! ..." Weirddave: "[i]Ex FIL was a VIP military pilot. Told a story a ..." publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb): " Well, I discovered a little bug in how this w ..." Login Rakyatjp: "Thank you a lot for sharing this with all of us yo ..." Recent Entries
Daily Tech News 1 February 2025
The Fault, Dear Brutus, Is Not In Our Stars, But In Our ONT Fri-YAY!!! Cafe Karoline Leavitt: Many Media People In This Very Room Attacked Trump as a "Conspiracy Theorist" and Lied About Covid's Origins The Trump Administration Keeps Giving the Media Simple, Direct, Candid, Straightforward Answers. The Media Keeps Rejecting These Answers and Demanding Different Answers. Update: FBI Firings Yuger Than First Reported Trump Orders Senior FBI Officials to Retire, Resign, or Be Fired By Monday CBS's Parent Corporation Paramount In Talks to Settle Trump's $10 Billion Election Interference Claim, Based on the Deceptive Editing of Kamala Harris's Word Salad Fake Interview Under Pressure From Voters, Newsom Walks Back His Plan to Spend $50 Million of Taxpayer Money to Sue Trump for... Whatever Trump Appoints New Acting Head of FAA Buh Bye: Chuck Todd Gonezers at MSNBC Search
Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Primary Document: The Audio
Paul Anka Haiku Contest Announcement Integrity SAT's: Entrance Exam for Paul Anka's Band AllahPundit's Paul Anka 45's Collection AnkaPundit: Paul Anka Takes Over the Site for a Weekend (Continues through to Monday's postings) George Bush Slices Don Rumsfeld Like an F*ckin' Hammer Top Top Tens
Democratic Forays into Erotica New Shows On Gore's DNC/MTV Network Nicknames for Potatoes, By People Who Really Hate Potatoes Star Wars Euphemisms for Self-Abuse Signs You're at an Iraqi "Wedding Party" Signs Your Clown Has Gone Bad Signs That You, Geroge Michael, Should Probably Just Give It Up Signs of Hip-Hop Influence on John Kerry NYT Headlines Spinning Bush's Jobs Boom Things People Are More Likely to Say Than "Did You Hear What Al Franken Said Yesterday?" Signs that Paul Krugman Has Lost His Frickin' Mind All-Time Best NBA Players, According to Senator Robert Byrd Other Bad Things About the Jews, According to the Koran Signs That David Letterman Just Doesn't Care Anymore Examples of Bob Kerrey's Insufferable Racial Jackassery Signs Andy Rooney Is Going Senile Other Judgments Dick Clarke Made About Condi Rice Based on Her Appearance Collective Names for Groups of People John Kerry's Other Vietnam Super-Pets Cool Things About the XM8 Assault Rifle Media-Approved Facts About the Democrat Spy Changes to Make Christianity More "Inclusive" Secret John Kerry Senatorial Accomplishments John Edwards Campaign Excuses John Kerry Pick-Up Lines Changes Liberal Senator George Michell Will Make at Disney Torments in Dog-Hell Greatest Hitjobs
The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny More Margaret Cho Abuse Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed" Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means Wonkette's Stand-Up Act Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report! Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet The House of Love: Paul Krugman A Michael Moore Mystery (TM) The Dowd-O-Matic! Liberal Consistency and Other Myths Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate "Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long) The Donkey ("The Raven" parody) |