It is not everyday that an American Prospect headline really captures a story, but the progressive magazine nailed it on the Supreme Court’s Knox v. Service Employees International Union decision issued yesterday. Under the header “The Court’s Scott Walker Moment,” The Prospect‘s Garrett Epps wrote:
In Knox v. Service Employees International Union, the five [conservatives] — Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito — reached out to decide a question that was not argued or briefed; their opinion all but begs right-wing advocacy groups and public employers to use its emerging First-Amendment jurisprudence to take down public-employee unions and in essence find a Southern-style “right to work” law in the Constitution. … It is the Court’s Scott Walker moment.
Epps obviously intends “Southern-style ‘right to work’ law to be pejorative, but it is hard to argue with Alito’s reasoning in the majority opinion, which today’s Examiner editorial recounts:
Labor unions provide a service to their members — a service that is worth whatever those members are willing to pay, but not a cent more. The Supreme Court’s ruling affirms this valuation. It continues a welcome trend across America of plugging up and sealing off unfair revenue streams that public-sector unions, over the years, have managed to extract from the unwilling — from taxpayers, governments and nonmembers.
This was a bad week for President Obama at the Supreme Court. But with both the Obamacare and Arizona immigration decisions set to be released soon, next week could be even worse.
Campaign 2012
Polls: According to Pew, “GOP voters are more likely than Democrats to say it really matters who wins the 2012 election (72% vs. 65%). Four years ago, Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say it really mattered who prevailed.”
Obama: The Obama campaign’s top lawyer, Bob Bauer, sent a letter to Karl Rove yesterday asking him to retract his claim that Bauer represented Dana Jill Simpson, the former Republican operative in Alabama who served as a whistleblower against Rove and others in the case of former Gov. Don Siegelman.
Romney: In a speech to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Friday, Romney said he’ll “replace and supersede” the amnesty policy Obama announced last week. And The Washington Post has a front page story reporting that, “Romney’s financial company, Bain Capital, invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India.”
Michigan: A new Mitchell Research poll shows Obama leading Romney by just one point in Michigan, 47 percent to 46 percent.
Around the Bigs
Bloomberg, Obama Stimulus Aids WorldCom Felon With Health Care Loan: Using Obama stimulus funds, the U.S. Department of Agriculture guaranteed a $7.45 million loan to David Myers, who served nine months in prison for helping to falsify WorldCom’s company’s books.
The Wall Street Journal, Ratings Cut for Giant Banks: Moody’s Investors Service dealt a fresh blow to the financial sector, downgrading more than a dozen global banks to reflect declining profitability in an industry being rocked by soft economic growth, tougher regulations and nervous investors.
The Washington Post, Across-the-board defense cuts could cost 1 million jobs: Across-the-board budget cuts set to hit the Pentagon in January would destroy nearly 1 million jobs by 2014, with Virginia, California and Texas absorbing the biggest hits, according to an analysis released Thursday by the National Association of Manufacturers.
The New York Times, Billions of Dollars Are in Play Over Health Care Law: Over $100 billion in health care infrastructure spending is at risk of being rescinded if the Supreme Court overturns Obamacare.
The Los Angeles Times, Jerry Brown, Democratic legislative leaders reach budget deal: Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders have reached an agreement to reduce California’s welfare rolls and cut back other social service funding, a deal that enables them to enact a state budget on time and focus on persuading voters to authorize tax hikes in November.
Righty Playbook
At The Corner, The Heritage Foundation’s James Sherk notes that the new president of SEIU views a bill that would allow employers to pay employees higher wages, as “a federal attack on your rights at work.”
The Washington Examiner‘s Tim Carney argues that Super PAC spending balances acts as a check on the special interests and the lobbyists.
AEI‘s James Pethokoukis says E.J. Dionne is wrong. America is at risk of becoming Greece.
Lefty Playbook
The progressive Constitutional Accountability Center whines that the Chamber of Commerce has won every case in which it filed an amicus brief this term.
The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein says that if the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare then it is political.
New York Magazine‘s Jonathan Chait argues that it does not matter whether or not the Supreme Court overturns Obamacare.
