On his own show, Bill O’Reilly pretty much denied the existence of racism in the US. Larry Wilmore closely examines that claim, especially noting the curious nature of the panel that O’Reilly selected to discuss the issue.
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The week that just ended was a good one.
After the appalling tragedy of the previous week with the Charleston killings, things improved considerably this week with the confederate flag suddenly losing favor as a result of the killer’s fondness for it, then a key provision of Obamacare being upheld by the US Supreme Court, and then same body saying that bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional.
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One interesting point of the Obamacare verdict was its 6-3 nature. Recall that the opponents of Obamacare had lost their case in all the Appeals Courts where it had been heard. They won 2-1 only in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and then that court decided that the case would be heard en banc, i.e., reheard by the entire bench. It was predicted that the full court would reverse the decision by the three-judge panel, thus making the Appeals Courts results unanimous again.
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He was quick out of the gate with his own thoughts on yesterday’s historic ruling on same-sex marriage.
I finally got around to reading all the opinions (majority and four dissents) in yesterday’s 5-4 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges affirming the right of same sex couples to marry. The opinion went far beyond what I had hoped for and predicted, and can be considered a maximal outcome, giving same-sex couples pretty much everything they asked for and deserve, that they be allowed to exercise exactly the same marriage rights as opposite-sex couples and that this applies to all the states.
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I will have an extensive review of the same-sex marriage opinions tomorrow but here’s The Daily Show on the ugly history of the confederate flag and sudden unraveling of support for it with bastions of the south calling for its removal from public spaces.
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In a huge decision released just now, today the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that bans on same-sex marriages were unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, joined by Kagan, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor.
This is a great day for the LGBT community and for everyone who believes in equal rights.
The ruling seems to go well beyond what I expected but I will write more about this later when I have had time to read the opinions and dissents. Unfortunately today is a very busy day for me.
But for now, all I will say is congratulations to those who fought so hard for this day.
As expected, the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to uphold the Obama administration’s understanding of the Obamacare law and reject the plaintiff’s claims that only health exchanges set up by the state could be used to provide the federal tax subsidies that made health insurance affordable to many has created a furious reaction from the right-wingers who seem to have become almost unhinged (I compiled a list of some of the immediate reactions yesterday.) The vehemence may be partly explained by their overly optimistic expectations that they would win, since they had won in the Appeals Court.
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Apparently Donald Trump has filed the paperwork for his candidacy, suggesting that he is serious about running, at least for now. Some observers seem surprised that polls show a surge in support for him. He is now in second place among the Republican candidates with support at 11%, just behind Jeb Bush at 12%.
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