Ruth Bader Ginsburg destroys Trump solicitor general in live hearing from her hospital bed

[turbinetree]

Published 8 hours ago on May 6, 2020
By David Edwards

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg blasted the Trump administration for a rule that allows additional businesses to opt-out of providing no-cost birth control for women.

Ginsburg made the remarks during a telephone hearing that was streamed live due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The justice reportedly joined the hearing from her hospital bed where she is being treated for a gallstone infection.

“What the government has done in expanding this exemption is to toss to the wind entirely Congress’ instruction that women need and shall have seamless, no-cost comprehensive coverage,” Ginsburg told Solicitor General Noel Francisco. “They can get contraception coverage by paying out of their own pocket which is exactly what Congress did not want to happen.”

The justice observed that a “major trend in religious freedom is to give everything to one side and nothing to the other side.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/ruth-bader-ginsburg-destroys-trump-solicitor-general-in-live-hearing-from-her-hospital-bed/

-snip-

Ginsburg went on to reference Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., where a majority of the court found that private corporations could be exempt from the Obama-era birth control mandate based on religious objections.

“Nothing in the interim rules affects the ability of employees and students to obtain without costs the full range of FDA-approved contraceptives,” she said. “You have just tossed entirely to the wind what Congress thought was essential. That is that women be provided these services with no hassle, no cost to them.”

“Instead, you are shifting the cost of the employer’s religious beliefs to the employees who do not share those religious beliefs,” she added. “The women end up getting nothing. They are required to do just what Congress didn’t want.”

[DonaldsRump]

1. Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to attend a lunch with RBG

Fortune smiled at me, and I sat next to RBG and her husband, who was the sweetest person you could imagine. What a wonderful pair these two were!

A RWNJ in our group mentioned during the lunch that the SCOTUS should stay out of "social issues", and RBG spoke in righteous fury, but as polite as can be, that without SCOTUS, African-Americans and other POCs would be attending separate schools, women's rights would be drastically different etc. The RWNJ had nothing to say, although I'm sure he would have been against all of this.

I was never so proud to be an American (and a lawyer) than at that point. Today, I am ashamed for being both. That will change on November 3.

Justice RBG: you are just wonderful! Take care of yourself! Your steadfast adherence to the law and to the truth is what gives simple folks like me hope.

[Ilsa]

2. What a memorable day!

You are so lucky! (I'm sure it was an earned privilege as well.)

[DonaldsRump]

4. Earned only because my boss, at the time, couldn't make it

But it was a REAL privilege. And it showed me how fearless she was in taking on nonsense spewed by folks like the RWNJ.

[burrowowl]

3. Kick! Hurray RBG!