memeorandum: Iraq Kurdistan independence referendum planned (BBC)

7:20 PM ET, July 1, 2014

Top Items:

The Supreme Court Isn't Waging a War on Women in Hobby Lobby — Responses to the Supreme Court's ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby are a study in contradictions. It's “a landmark victory for religious liberty” that gives bosses “license to harm their female employees in the name of religion.”

Discussion: Becket Fund, The Dish, Brookings Institute, Twitchy and Washington Post

Associated Press:

Justices act in other health law mandate cases Associated Press 11 mins ago — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed that its decision a day earlier extending religious rights to closely held corporations applies broadly to the contraceptive coverage requirement …

Discussion: The Mahablog and Daily Kos

Sasha Volokh / Washington Post:

Is RFRA unconstitutional? — I basically agree with my co-bloggers' posts from yesterday about Hobby Lobby (see, e.g., Eugene's posts here and here): given RFRA, I think Hobby Lobby should have prevailed, as it did. In particular, I favor the idea that corporations should be able to assert rights under RFRA (see Ilya's post here).

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Bleeding Heart Libertarians, The Dish and Alas, a Blog

The Hill:

Obama weighs executive hammer — President Obama is weighing executive actions after the Supreme Court ruled against ObamaCare's contraception mandate. — The White House swiftly called on Congress to enact a legislative fix but realistically knows lawmakers aren't about to act.

Discussion: CNN, Politico, Hullabaloo and Weasel Zippers

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

Wider impact of Hobby Lobby ruling? — The Supreme Court sent a fairly strong signal on Tuesday that its ruling giving some for-profit businesses a right not to provide birth control services to their female workers goes beyond the specific methods at issue in that decision.

Discussion: RH Reality Check and Balloon Juice

Abby Haglage / The Daily Beast:

After Hobby Lobby, These 82 Corporations Could Drop Birth Control Coverage — From Notre Dame to manufacturers, dozens of companies were waiting for the Supreme Court's decision in order to opt-out of Obamacare's contraception mandate. — Hobby Lobby is about to get a lot more company.

Discussion: American Spectator, Jezebel, Daily Signal and Politico

New York Times:

Limiting Rights: Imposing Religion on Workers — The Supreme Court's deeply dismaying decision on Monday in the Hobby Lobby case swept aside accepted principles of corporate law and religious liberty to grant owners of closely held, for-profit companies an unprecedented right to impose their religious views on employees.

Discussion: Power Line, Liberal Values, Taylor Marsh, The Daily Caller, The Incidental Economist, Washington Post, The Daily Banter, National Review, The Democratic Daily and BuzzFeed

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:
Hobby Lobby Movie Already in the Works (Video)

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Raw Story, National Review and No More Mister Nice Blog

Ben Domenech / The Federalist:
OTC Birth Control: Your Body, Your Choice, Your Responsibility

Discussion: Vox and Hot Air

Sandra Fluke / Washington Post:
The Hobby Lobby case is an attack on women

Discussion: Daily Kos and Religion Dispatches

Elias Isquith / Salon:
John Roberts, abysmal failure: How his court was disgraced by corporations and theocrats

Discussion: NewsBusters, Mediaite, Wall Street Journal, Balkinization, PoliticusUSA, Washington Post, Democratic Strategist and Political Insider blog

Patrick Brennan / National Review:
Hobby Lobby Actually Lavishes Contraception Coverage on Its Employees

Discussion: The Hill, Weasel Zippers, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, NOLA River, Hit & Run and Mother Jones

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Supreme Court Breakfast Table

Discussion: The Mahablog, FIRST DRAFT and Washington Free Beacon

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
In Hobby Lobby ruling, the Supreme Court uses a ‘fiction’

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Daily Kos

Megan McArdle / Bloomberg View:
What the Hobby Lobby Ruling Really Means

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Lawyers, Guns & Money, National Review, Hit & Run, The Dish, alicublog, Mother Jones, SCOTUSblog, The Atlantic Online, New York Times, Vox, The Huffington Post, Close Read, The Daily Caller, USA Today and Washington Post

Jonathon M. Seidl / TheBlaze.com:

Wait Until You See the Picture Frame NBC's Cameras Found in Valerie Jarrett's Office — Editor's Note: — Be sure to read to the bottom to see Jarrett's explanation. — Don't blink or you might miss it. — Earlier this week during NBC's exclusive peek inside the world of Valerie Jarrett …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Truth Revolt and Business Insider

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

What's Going With This Photo In Valerie Jarrett's Office? — An NBC package over the weekend shows an odd display. — “Our Cynthia McFadden was granted unique access and spent a day behind the scenes with Valerie Jarrett at the White House,” host David Gregory said introducing the segment.

Discussion: Althouse

Geoff Pender / The Clarion-Ledger:

Cochran campaign denies vote-buying reports — The U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran campaign is denying reports from a conservative blogger that it was trying to buy votes in Lauderdale County. — Blogger Charles C. Johnson of GotNews.com is reporting that Stevie Fielder says the Cochran campaign told …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Little Green Footballs, The Daily Caller and The Other McCain

Daniel Strauss / Talking Points Memo:
McDaniel's Bizarre Plan To Challenge The Senate Race In Mississippi

Discussion: BarbWire.com, Fox News and RedState

Matthew Boyle / BREITBART.COM:
DEMOCRAT PASTOR ACCUSES THAD COCHRAN CAMPAIGN OF VOTE-FOR-PAY SCHEME

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh, RedState, BarbWire.com, The Daily Caller and The Gateway Pundit

Shane Goldmacher / NationalJournal.com:

Congress Quietly Deletes a Key Disclosure of Free Trips Lawmakers Take — House Ethics reverses decades of precedent as lobbyist-sponsored lawmaker travel expands. — It's going to be a little more difficult to ferret out which members of Congress are lavished with all-expenses-paid trips around …

Discussion: Truth Revolt, AMERICAblog News, Daily Kos, The Verge, Washington Post, Real Clear Politics, Mediaite, Hot Air, Bloomberg View, PoliticusUSA, Talking Points Memo and Fox News

Andrew Wolfson / Courier-Journal:

Gays have right to marry in Kentucky, judge rules — A federal judge today ruled that same-sex couples have a right to marry in Kentucky. — “In America, even sincere and long-hold religious beliefs do not trump the constitutional rights of those who happen to have been out-voted,” …

Discussion: Jezebel, Outside the Beltway, AMERICAblog News, ACS Blog, Daily Kos, ThinkProgress and Talking Points Memo

Charles Murray / Wall Street Journal:

The Trouble Isn't Liberals. It's Progressives. — Not everyone on the left wants to quash dissent or indulge President Obama's abuses of executive power. — Social conservatives. Libertarians. Country-club conservatives. Tea party conservatives. Everybody in politics knows …

Discussion: National Review, Questions and Observations and Gawker

Jesse Watters / Fox News Insider:

WATCH: Police Kick Watters Out of NOW Conference — This weekend, Jesse Watters took a trip to a National Organization for Women conference at the Hyatt in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where an interesting turn of events took place. — Watters interviewed some of the attendees, asking questions like …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Weasel Zippers and Progressives Today

David Edwards / The Raw Story:
NM police boot Fox's Jesse Watters from women's conference after ‘sexist’ comments

Discussion: PoliticusUSA

Jon Clifton / Gallup:

Americans Less Satisfied With Freedom — Perceived widespread corruption in U.S. government on the rise — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fewer Americans are satisfied with the freedom to choose what they do with their lives compared with seven years ago — dropping 12 percentage points from 91% in 2006 to 79% in 2013.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Examiner, Hot Air, Real Clear Politics and The Federalist

Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed:

What Happens When A Prep School's Black Student President Mocks Her White Male Classmates — An Instagram photo allegedly led the country's most expensive boarding school to strip its first black female student body president of her role. — One day last March, Lawrenceville School Student …

Discussion: Feministing, Jezebel, Hinterland Gazette and Gawker

Pew Research Center:

Americans show modest interest in Iraq news, less interest in World Cup — So far, the growing crisis in Iraq has not drawn strong interest from the American public. As Sunni militants extend their control of large swaths of Iraq, 25% say they are paying very close attention to the growing violence and political instability in Iraq.

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite, Red Alert Politics, Hot Air, The Federalist, Fox News Insider, The Huffington Post, Poynter and The Dish

Phillip Longman / Washington Monthly:

Clueless or Craven? The White House Gets the VA Story Exactly Backwards — Sad to say, the Obama administration seems clueless about what might be broken at the VA and how to fix it. Either that, or it is just cravenly saying and doing whatever it thinks is necessary to make the story go away.

Discussion: POTUS Operandi

Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:

Officer's Conviction in Cannibalism Case Overturned — The 2013 conviction of a former New York City police officer in a plot to kidnap, torture, kill and eat women was overturned late Monday by a federal judge who said there was not sufficient evidence to support it.