SCOTUS's contraceptive coverage case results in activist judging; things are officially Bad in Venezuela; the classiest section you'll ever read about a penis transplant.
In an unsigned summary opinion Monday, the Supreme Court sent a series of cases back to the lower courts covering religious nonprofits' obligation to make birth control coverage available to their employees.
The ruling basically tells the lower courts to help the nonprofits and the federal government work out a way for employees of nonprofits to get coverage for contraceptives on the government's tab — a compromise that both sides said they could be willing to live with in briefs earlier this year.
Obviously, this isn't something that would happen if the Court had a five-vote majority on either side — in other words, it indicates the religious groups would have won the case if Justice Antonin Scalia were still alive.
And a concurrence, signed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, explicitly warns the lower courts not to try to read the decision as any kind of indication of the Court's feelings on the underlying legal question: whether it burdens religious freedom for employers to be complicit in the contraception health coverage of their employees.
But to describe the Court's order as a "punt," as many did, isn't exactly fair. The Court was actually extremely proactive in trying to figure out a compromise position both sides could get on board with — after oral arguments, it took the rare step of asking for new briefs to address the question of whether a government-funded option could work.
Furthermore, since a second go-round at SCOTUS to resolve the underlying legal questions is inevitable, St. Louis University's Chad Flanders that argues Monday's ruling actually narrows the common ground available to the two sides and the Court down the road.
The emergency order, detailed Monday, allows the federal government to expropriate private companies, and gives the army authority to distribute and sell food along with "keeping public order."
In response to the country's widespread energy crisis (explained by Vox's Brad Plumer earlier this year), Maduro granted his government the ability to cut the workweek of not only public sector workers (currently working only two days a week) but private sector ones as well.
But distress in Venezuela goes far beyond what Maduro can control. As the New York Times reported Monday, the death of infants in Venezuelan hospitals has become routine, as the country's disintegration has made it impossible to effectively protect public health.
Maduro's announcement of the state of emergency spurred pro-government demonstrations over the weekend. But it hardly put a damper on anti-government ones.
US officials privately predict Maduro won't last out his term (which is supposed to end in 2018). But they admit they have very little leverage to help stabilize the country.
China, on the other hand, has a lot of leverage. It's Venezuela's biggest creditor — and it's just agreed to renegotiate the terms of its current deal with Venezuela, which gives China oil in exchange for loans.
(The first successful penis transplant in history was performed in South Africa two years ago; earlier attempts had resulted in organ rejection, but the South African patient has been able to father a child.)
Eric Boodman of Stat News has the inside story of the procedure, and of patient Thomas Manning — who lost all but an inch of his penis to an aggressive form of penile cancer.
The transplant is the first in a clinical initiative: Johns Hopkins researchers aim to perform transplants on 60 men who've served in the armed forces, before seeing if the procedure can be used more widely.
Even then, though, there will be additional hurdles to making the procedure safe for transgender men, though it's likely going to be possible at some point.
From a medical perspective, the transplant is an achievement. But it also represents a shift for transplant medicine: into procedures that improve patients' lives, rather than saving them.
31 years ago, the Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on a rowhouse in a residential neighborhood, killing 11 (including five children) and destroying 61 houses. How come so few people have heard about it?
There's a cave in Romania that's been almost entirely isolated for 5.5 million years — and houses an ecosystem of spiders, scorpions, and centipedes, many of which have never been seen by humans before.
The Farm Security Administration is responsible for some of the most enduring photographic accounts of the Great Depression — but permanently damaged the negatives of countless more photos, which are only now seeing the light of day.
Driverless trucks could dramatically reduce shipping costs, thus cutting the price of staple goods substantially. They are also set to disemploy 1.6 million people.
"There is a strong possibility that Barack will pursue a political career, although it’s unclear. There is a little tension with that. I’m very wary of politics."
"Superheroes, like most elites, are instinctively hostile to regulation, and Mr Rogers’ leeriness is exacerbated by his deep-rooted cultural nationalism."
"Intensive parenting is, in many ways, a logical response to the harsh risks facing young people during college and early adulthood. Increasing income inequality, high rates of young-adult unemployment, and a decline in stable and well-paying entry-level jobs loom threateningly in the foreground … Involved parents provide insurance against risk."
