In the battle over regulation, Wall Street is poised to notch another win.
The subject of the latest outrageous ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is an 11-by-17-inch poster. The National Labor Relations Board requires nearly six million private employers to display the poster, which informs employees of their right to join or form a union or to take action together to improve their working conditions.
This week, three conservatives on the court struck down the rule on the ground that the board lacks the authority to make it. The rule, the court said, violated an employer’s First Amendment right not to be compelled to endorse a view he disagrees with, the way students in public school cannot be forced to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
The appeals court ruling is a reminder of why the court is sometimes known as the graveyard of federal regulation.
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit court has four vacancies, out of 11 seats. Republican obstructionism has blocked new appointments during the Obama administration. A decision on a subject as politically charged as this one shows why it is important to have balance on the court.
Bill Requires Teens To Get Parental Consent For STD Tests
A Republican-controlled committee in the North Carolina General Assembly approved a bill on Tuesday that would require teenagers to present a notarized parental consent form in order to access sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment, mental health counseling, pregnancy care or substance abuse treatment. Teenagers without a parent or guardian would be required to stand before a judge and request a judicial bypass in order to obtain those health services. - http://huff.to/18Uvzgq
"Some people seem to think that just because you’re for the separation of church and state, you’re somehow antagonistic to religion, but that’s just not true. We believe in church-state separation because it protects believers from government regulation… but that doesn’t make it any less faithful."
— Dem. Senator Ben Cardin
Just 1 Lawmaker Attended the First 90 Minutes of a Hearing on Long-Term Unemployment…and Only 4 Lawmakers Attend the Remainder
(Source: The Huffington Post)
"Sixty-eight years after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, 68 years after the end of the Holocaust, we may not ignore a disturbing resurgence of racist and neo-fascist political groups in at least three countries that belong to both the European Union and NATO."
— Menachem Rosensaft: Ominous Clouds Hover Once Again Over Europe
The explosion in West, which killed at least 14 people, is now entering a dark pantheon of events in Texas, ones that will surely lead to debates in the state about government regulation and oversight — or the lack thereof. About what “public safety” really means, implies, entails. About Texas’ passionate history of pushing back at what some see as big-government intrusion — a trend that traces back to the regulation-free days of wildcatting in the oil patches.
As before, there will be demands that Texas be willing to scrutinize companies so tragedies like the one in West never occur again. But if history is any guide, lawmakers and officials will still err on the side of industry and less so on the side of public safety. And there will be another West in the years to come.
(Source: sandandglass, via hijabeng)
