The Catholic Supreme Court’s War on Women

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/Jam ... r-on-women

"Et tu, Justice Sonia Sotomayor? Really, we can't trust you on women's health and human rights? The lady from the Bronx just dropped the ball on American women and girls as surely as she did the sparkling ball at midnight on New Year's Eve in Times Square. Or maybe she's just a good Catholic girl.

The Supreme Court is now best understood as the Extreme Court. One big reason why is that six out of nine Justices are Catholic. Let's be forthright about that. (The other three are Jewish.) Sotomayor, appointed by President Obama, is a Catholic who put her religion ahead of her jurisprudence. What a surprise, but that is no small thing.

In a stay order applying to an appeal by a Colorado nunnery, the Little Sisters of the Poor, Justice Sotomayor undermined the new Affordable Care Act's sensible policy on contraception. She blocked the most simple of rules – lenient rules – that required the Little Sisters to affirm their religious beliefs against making contraception available to its members. They objected to filling out a one-page form. What could be easier than nuns claiming they don't believe in contraception?

[See a collection of political cartoons on the Catholic contraception controversy.]

Sotomayor's blow brings us to confront an uncomfortable reality. More than WASPS, Methodists, Jews, Quakers or Baptists, Catholics often try to impose their beliefs on you, me, public discourse and institutions. Especially if "you" are female. This is not true of all Catholics – just look at House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. But right now, the climate is so cold when it comes to defending our settled legal ground that Sotomayor's stay is tantamount to selling out the sisterhood. And sisterhood is not as powerful as it used to be, ladies."...

and a response.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchore ... t-us-news/

"Fisking Stiehm’s Bigotry at US News
January 8, 2014 By Elizabeth Scalia
I stopped being a Democrat when it became clear that I was expected to vacate any of my own thoughts and opinions in order to fall in line with the party, or be called moronic or hateful or bigoted or even evil. There was no way the party could be wrong on anything, therefore dissent indicated a problem originating with me. “I” had the problem; not the party.
Don’t snigger, conservatives, you have your narrow-minded purists, too. Perhaps you’ve never marched in lockstep with quite the same precision as the Democrats, but you’ve run your own purges, and handily. Because whom the godlings of ideologies would destroy, they first make mad.
Currently Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is being sized up for a suit of tar and feathers or,"...

As a former Catholic, you go Sonia! Nuns shouldn't have to pay for birth control!
Just kidding. Little Sisters of the Poor has a facility in Denver that I have visited in the past. One of their big missions is to take care of elderly Priests, Sisters, and Brothers who have retired but are unable to afford elder care. How many will they have to turn away to pay for ACA?

This shows you the ignorance of this writer... from the article...

Thomas Jefferson, the principal champion of the separation between state and church, was thinking particularly of pernicious Rome in his writings. He deeply distrusted the narrowness of Vatican hegemony.

He was writing about the Roman Empire, not Rome. He deeply distrusted the Anglican Church. Catholics were a small minority in the early colonies.

Take a History 101 course before you start spouting off bull crap.

FredHayek wrote: As a former Catholic, you go Sonia! Nuns shouldn't have to pay for birth control!
Just kidding. Little Sisters of the Poor has a facility in Denver that I have visited in the past. One of their big missions is to take care of elderly Priests, Sisters, and Brothers who have retired but are unable to afford elder care. How many will they have to turn away to pay for ACA?

None. All they had to do was to sign a form that they could not pay for contraceptives for their employees for religious reasons. They refuse to sign the form as it would then allow their employees to obtain government reimbursed contraceptives from their insurer.