FREEDOMWORKS 06/28/2015

The Court Only Delayed ObamaCare's Collapse - by Adam Brandon via U.S. News & World Report With the Supreme Court deciding in favor of the Obama administration on the question of whether federal health insurance subsidies are legal, the rule of law – and the English language – took a real beating. As President Barack Obama takes a victory lap, he needs to realize that this is not the end of the fight. It is true that the court's decision renders the federal Obamacare subsidies legal. But that does not mean an end to the conversation about health care in America, and it certainly does not make Obamacare a permanent institution. The simple reason for this is that there is no way the president's health care law can survive in the long run. It is structurally unsound, and the court's ruling will merely delay its inevitable collapse. Read more here... King v. Burwell: Words Have No Meaning if Inconvenient- by Michael Greibrok Some words apparently have no meaning, even when written in plain English, according to a majority of Supreme Court justices. Today the Court reached its long awaited decision in King v. Burwell. The Court ruled 6-3 for Burwell, holding that the federal subsidies can continue to flow to states that have not established an exchange. Chief Justice Roberts once again wrote the opinion defending ObamaCare, and was joined by Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan. Justice Scalia wrote a dissenting opinion that was joined by Justices Thomas and Alito. Read more here... Privacy: Hotels get it now too- by Erin Aitcheson The Fourth Amendment finds victory today in the Supreme Court case ruling of City of Los Angeles v. Patel. In a narrow 5-4 decision, the Court upheld a foundational principle of our constitution: Warrantless searches and seizures are unconstitutional. The Fourth Amendment protects “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures… and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause.” In the Patel case, a group of hotel operators in the LA area challenged an ordinance of the City of Los Angeles that required hotel and motel operators to keep records of specified information regarding guests and allow warrantless onsite inspections of such records by the Los Angeles Police Department. At the trial court level, the ordinance was found to be constitutional with no implications against the Fourth Amendment. It was not until a re-hearing at the appellate level of the Ninth Circuit that the ordinance was declared unconstitutional resulting in today’s affirmation of that decision. Read more here... Register for FreedomFest and get $100 off with the promo code FWFF15 today: http://freedomfest.com/register-now/ Watch Tom Borelli on The Steve Malzberg Show on NewsmaxTV  Education Spending isn't working: Let's try something else - by Logan Albright via Watchdog In early June, the U.S. Census Bureau issued a report on the state of public education finances in the United States. Among the reports many interesting charts and graphs is the tracking of per-student spending in elementary and secondary schools from 1992 to present. In all but one year, spending has increased, topping out at $10,705 per student. With a trend like that, most reasonable people would expect to see dramatic results reflected in student performance. Otherwise, what are we paying for? Unfortunately, this is far from the case. While we continue to increase funding for schools, the chorus of voices decrying the deplorable state of public education in this country has only grown louder. Fear of falling behind in international assessments is driving politicians and pundits to ignore the actual evidence that throwing money at a problem rarely does much to solve it. Read more here... FreedomWorks Statement on King v. Burwell Ruling On the 6-3 ruling by the Supreme Court to save the federal ObamaCare subsidies, FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon commented: "The Supreme Court ruling on King v. Burwell is a disappointment, but it's not the end of our fight. The state exchanges are running multi-billion dollar deficits and are unsustainable. Premiums and deductibles keep rising to the point where people can't afford the insurance they're forced to buy. This decision doesn't save ObamaCare, only delays its inevitable collapse." "Our grassroots activists, and the majority of the American people, did not want ObamaCare to begin with. Since the Supreme Court refuses to stand up for freedom, it is even more important than ever that we work to enact patient-centered health care reform." Read more here... Kelo v. New London: How the Supreme Court Gutted Constitutional Protections for Private Property - by Jason Pye Ten years ago today, the United States Supreme Court fundamentally changed the meaning and purpose of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, which allows for the use of eminent domain for “public use,” such as a road. But in a 5 to 4 decision, the Court ruled that eminent domain could be used to take property from a private citizen for purposes other than a public use. At issue in Kelo v. City of New London was the city’s use of eminent domain to seize property for economic development. New London, a small Connecticut city located next to the Thames River, hoped to bring a Pfizer research center to the city and, with assistance from the state, offered the pharmaceutical giant a very generous tax abatement package worth some $78 million. Pfizer opened the $300 million facility in 2001. Read more here... Free Market Health Care with Dr. CL Gray A Net Neutrality Rent Seeking Begins - by Logan Albright When the FCC announced that it would regulate the internet under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, we predicted a number of undesirable outcomes. One of these concerns was the ability of firms to petition the regulatory agency for special favors, and file complaints against competitors without having to actually demonstrate harm. Such an environment encourages harassment suits and rent seeking behaviors by companies who direct resources into influencing government rather than towards innovation and competition. It turns out, it hasn’t taken long for us to see exactly this sort of behavior emerging. In the first complaint to be filed in the post-Title II world, a company called Commercial Network Services is demanding that the FCC use rate regulation to allow it to transmit video content for free, arguing that Time Warner Cable is charging it unjust rates for video streaming services. Read more here... Sign up for the FreedomWorks Morning Update If you want an update like this newsletter twice a week, be sure to sign up for the FreedomWorks Morning Update! The Morning Update is your tool to keep up-to-date with all the threats to your freedom. Sign up here. Make freedom work, Iris Somberg Press Secretary, FreedomWorks