I hope this is working, OK, have never live blogged before.
Now going over Supreme Court 5-4 decisions that have significant impact.
Favor corporations over people. Help elect republicans,
Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby — religious freedom act should be applied to corporations. This gives corporations a soul that has a religious belief. So they are not only a super super rich bazillionaire, but they also have a soul. This fantastic concentration of power. It is very difficult to influence the board of directors. The corporation might be different if it was speaking for the shareholders. They actually steal the speech of the shareholders, using their money to support politicians without asking the shareholders what they want.
Walmart suit — six women who said they had to work longer with lower pay. The court found they couldn’t do a class action case because they didn’t have enough commonality.
Again five to four. Five justices said lets protect Walmart
American Express vs. Italian Colors Restaurants — American Express could prohibit class actions cases and the court supported that. Individuals experiencing alleged bad practices from big companies needed to band together to take on the million dollar lawyers of big companies. Without class action, there is justice denied.
Comcast vs Berend (?) Thrown out because damages were not quantifiable for all participants. Five said we can tighten this up and make it harder to challenge big business.
On and on — we didn’t know there were so many cases affecting the power of people to take on corporations that were lost on a five to four basis. IN five to four cases, corporations won 16 times, people won 0 times. (He continues with other examples — I am taking a typing break)
update: I was blogging for those who couldn’t get span — but it can also be seen on local tv live. So, I will stop and not worry about making sure others don’t miss this amazing classroom on justice.
Thank, you Senator Merkley!
Addendum: one more thing, he is doing a wonderful job of showing how Gorsuch “used the judicial position to rewrite laws.” To take protection away from people .