The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a pair of cases on whether the Affordable Care Act can mandate that corporations provide insurance coverage for contraceptives for their employees despite religious objections of the corporation’s owners. As Adam Liptak of the New York Times reports, the Third and Tenth Circuits have split on the issue. Oral arguments are expected for March with a decision issued by June.
The Editorial Board of the New York Times is also chiming in on the case. The Editorial Board argues the contraceptives mandate doesn’t run afoul of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the law cited by corporate religious objectors. The statute “bars the federal government from taking actions that ‘substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion’ unless the action advances a compelling government interest and is the ‘least restrictive means’ of achieving it.”
Pope Francis has issued an apostolic exhortation entitled “Evangelii Gaudium” (the Joy of the Gospel) — a papal pronouncement with less weight than an encyclical. The exhortation echoes longstanding church concerns about poverty and inequality. Among other things, the Washington Post notes the exhortation sharply criticizes “trickle-down” economics as “expresses[ing] a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power . . . .”
City voters in Seatac have approved the highest municipal wage in the nation—$15/hr—by a narrow margin. If the vote survives recount efforts, it will provide a boon to thousands airport workers employed in this small city south of Seattle: Seatac is home to the Seattle-Tacoma International airport. The New York Times notes that labor unions are praising the result as a call to action on the issue of worker wages.
In other minimum wage news, the County Council of Montgomery Maryland has voted to raise the wages of workers to $11.50/hr by 2017. As the Washington Post reports, the law will affect employees doing work in the county for companies “operating and doing business in the county.” The vote marks a reversal of the council’s previous position that wages should be addressed at the state and federal level.
The New York Times is reporting that creditors in the Detroit bankruptcy have filed a motion to create a committee to retain a “leading art intermediary” to value the City’s world-class art collection in anticipation of a possible sale. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the creditor group, which includes City retirees and labor unions, argues that the art collection has no connection with Detroit’s provision of core services and should be sold to maximize creditor recovery.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 16
In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB sues New York, a flight attendant sues United, and the Third Circuit considers the employment status of Uber drivers The NLRB sued New York to block a new law that would grant the state authority over private-sector labor disputes. As reported on recently by Finlay, the law, which […]
September 15
Unemployment claims rise; a federal court hands victory to government employees union; and employers fire workers over social media posts.
September 14
Workers at Boeing reject the company’s third contract proposal; NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cohen plans to sue New York over the state’s trigger bill; Air Canada flight attendants reject a tentative contract.
September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.