Those advocating for the bill are only concerned with protecting hateful and intolerant religious zealots and completely unconcerned with how this potential discrimination will infringe on the rights of other people, namely the LGBTQIA community, children, domestic violence victims and others.
Peggy Young, a former employee of UPS, became pregnant in 2006 and was instructed by her doctor to not lift more than 20 pounds. Her normal duties at UPS, consisting mostly of delivering letters, very rarely required her to lift anything heavier than 20 pounds. However, UPS forced her to take unpaid leave as she was “too much of a liability” and she had to go without her employer-sponsored health insurance while pregnant. Other employees, those with disabilities, people with on-the-job injuries and even employees who had lost their commercial drivers’ licenses as a result of DUI convictions, received “light duty,” which was an accommodation UPS refused to provide Peggy Young.
Only 13 states set up a state-facilitated Health Exchange in accordance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), leaving 37 states with a federally-facilitated Health Exchange. Health Exchanges are where individuals and families can apply to receive health insurance coverage under the ACA and where many can also qualify for subsidies via tax credits to help pay premiums. If the Supreme Court decides “wrongly” (in our view) in King v. Burwell, some eight to 10 million persons would likely lose their health insurance in these states because many would lose the subsidies that have made their insurance affordable.
This court case will decide whether plaintiffs can bring claims under the Fair Housing Act challenging policies and practices that have a disproportionate and negative effect on a protected class of people. This case will consider whether the Fair Housing Act prohibits policies that have a discriminatory effect, regardless of whether the policy was adopted with intent to discriminate.
The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to state bans on same-sex marriage in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee on April 28 – an historic event for marriage equality advocates and for the nation.