Constitutional Interpretation and Change

by Nicole G. Berner, Associate General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Counsel of Record in Labor Movement Briefs filed in Hollingsworth v. Perry and United States v. Windsor & Elena Medina, SEIU Law Fellow. This post is part of an ACSblog symposium on Hollingsworth v. Perry and U.S. v. Windsor.

A broad coalition of labor unions, representing more than 20 million American workers, and the interests of working people more broadly, filed amicus curiae briefs in support of the respondents in the Supreme Court challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8. Both cases will come before the Court for oral argument next week. The briefs, the only to outline specifically the economic damages of these laws, advocate for the right of all working people to fair and equal treatment in the workplace, and for the right of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers to receive the same employment benefits and protections as their heterosexual co-workers.

Marital status plays a key role in determining eligibility for-- and taxation of -- a myriad of workplace benefits and protections. These benefits, together with state and federal programs for working people and their families, form the safety net upon which most Americans rely for retirement and financial assistance in the event of illness, injury, disability or death. They are particularly crucial for families in which only one adult works outside of the home or is eligible for employer-provided benefits. Laws codifying marriage discrimination, such as DOMA and Proposition 8, largely deprive LGBT workers of access to these benefits and protections and thereby perpetuate a two-tiered workforce in which LGBT workers are treated inferior to their heterosexual counterparts and unfairly relegated to a lower stratum of economic security.

Health Care Benefits. Employer-provided health care provides the most common source of medical coverage for working Americans and their families. But for same-sex couples, DOMA and Proposition 8 create a litany of impediments that complicate, penalize or flatly prohibit full family coverage. Without equal access to employer-provided spousal health care benefits, some non-covered same-sex partners are forced to rely on coverage available through public assistance or to go without health insurance entirely. Even for workers whose employers extend coverage to gay and lesbian spouses or who can afford to purchase private insurance for the non-covered spouse, DOMA and Proposition 8 deny access to tax benefits and raise health care costs for same-sex couples significantly, forcing such couples to pay thousands of dollars more on healthcare each year.

by Jeremy Leaming

Advocates of privacy rights, especially reproductive rights, have had one challenge after another mostly from state lawmakers bent on destroying those rights.  

As reported earlier this week, religious groups were successful in lobbying the Arkansas legislature to adopt what The New York Times called the “country’s most restrictive ban on abortion – at 12 weeks” of pregnancy.

The landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade, found that the Constitution provides women “the right of personal privacy,” which “includes the abortion decision ….” Like many rights protected in the Constitution it’s not an unlimited one. And the Roe Court found that states have a compelling interest to regulate abortion at the point of viability, usually around 24 weeks, as The Times notes.

The law’s sponsor, according to The Times, “compared the more than 50 million abortions in the United States since Roe” to the “Holocaust ….”

That overwrought language is unfortunately typical of too many state lawmakers from coast to coast who for over the past several years have strived to create more laws to make it much more difficult for women to obtain abortions. As former U.S. Solicitor General Walter Dellinger has noted, it’s annoyingly ironic that conservative lawmakers who blasted the Affordable Care Act as attempting to strip liberty from Americans are the ones pushing laws depriving women of their liberties. Women have the ability to make health care decisions for themselves, but right-wing lawmakers are more concerned about embryos, which do not have constitutional rights.

Because the Arkansas law so blatantly violates Roe, it is likely to be quickly challenged, as it should be.

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice American, blasted the law, saying “This is another example of how anti-choice politicians are obsessed with rolling back reproductive rights guaranteed by the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision more than 40 years ago. This law robs women of control over their own lives and puts that control in the hands of politicians in Little Rock. This intrusive, extreme agenda is out of touch with our nation’s values and priorities – and we stand firmly in opposition.”

Too many state lawmakers have been obsessed with restricting the rights of women. Their priorities are regressive and obnoxious in the face of budget difficulties and people who need jobs or government services to help them become trained for new jobs. Instead of harassing women, state lawmakers should focus on issues that will bolster, not harm their communities.