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Heritage Foundation Applauds Supreme Court’s Ruling to Protect Religious Liberty <[link removed]> – Catholic Social Services has demonstrated for more than a century that religious beliefs inspire and motivate service to
vulnerable children and foster parents. Philadelphia contracts with dozens of foster care agencies and no one complained about being rejected by this agency. The city singled out Catholic Social Services to purge any organization that held a traditional view of marriage. The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling today says that this hostility violated First Amendment freedoms. The Supreme Court’s decision today exposed and rejected another instance of government hostility toward religious freedom. Unanimity is rare in our discourse these days, but the Court ruled 9-0 that Philadelphia’s actions were unconstitutional. This decision, however, was necessary only because the Court, in Employment Division v. Smith, had previously, and improperly, narrowed the First Amendment’s protection of the fundamental right to exercise religion. The Court should correct that error as soon as possible. Heritage expert: Emilie Kao <[link removed]>
Supreme Court Obamacare Ruling Emphasizes Why Congress Must Provide Better Health Reform <[link removed]> – Today’s ruling reminds us that Congress needs to return to health reform. Many Americans still need relief from the rising health care costs and shrinking coverage options that have resulted from the Affordable Care Act. Heritage’s new data tool shows that across the country, conditions in the individual insurance market have worsened dramatically after Obamacare’s passage—all while sending bigger taxpayer checks to insurance companies that have little incentive to lower prices. It’s time for lawmakers to step up and pass reforms that make health care work for patients instead of Washington bureaucrats and special interest groups. The Health Care Choices Proposal would do this while also protecting those with pre-existing conditions. We can protect Americans and improve their health care options without settling for the failures that are part of Obamacare’s flawed design. Heritage experts: Marie Fishpaw <[link removed]> and John
Malcolm <[link removed]>

Obamacare’s Side Effects: Higher Costs, Lower Choices <[link removed]> – More than a decade after passage of the Affordable Care Act, Americans buying health insurance under the law are
still much worse off financially than before Obamacare was enacted. Overall competition and choice in insurers are no better than when the law took effect in 2014. The market is still drastically less competitive than it was before. Reforms that Obamacare architects claimed would lower the price of insurance have had the opposite effect. Some states have found relief in the form of the Section 1332 waiver, and data from recent years show that costs drop when states can use regulatory relief to provide options tailored to the unique needs of citizens who have high health costs. Congress should build on this success by enacting the Health Care Choices plan, which codifies the Trump
administration’s regulatory relief and builds on it with further relief. Heritage expert: Ed Haislmaier <[link removed]>

Education Secretary Prioritizes Transgender Students Over Biological Girls, Does What Supreme Court Hasn’t <[link removed]> – Cardona cemented his department’s formal
position in support for transgender athletes, indicating that the Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County opinion extending workplace discrimination protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to gay and transgender employees would likewise be applied by the Department of Education to gay and transgender students under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Previous Department of Education guidance issued by the Office for Civil Rights had indicated that while Bostock would possibly have salience in relation to sexual orientation, it ought not to guide interpretations of Title IX in relation to transgender students, as by definition, transgender students identified with a gender other than with their biological sex. The opposition of biological sex to gender identity would gut Title IX’s very purpose; namely, to ensure that girls and young women have equal opportunities in education, including sports, bathrooms, and other areas of privacy. Heritage expert: Sarah Perry <[link removed]>
Fighting Back Against Cyber Attackers <[link removed]> – Although ransomware has dominated headlines most recently, increasingly sophisticated spear-phishing campaigns and general breaches of user authentication
processes are the standard offenses for many cybercriminals and nation-states actors. Increased focus on software supply chain security, zero-trust architecture, and multi-factor authentication need to become a mainstay of those operating in a cyber world, no matter how small the business or operation. Critical infrastructure operators and businesses have to ask themselves if they’ll be ready if that “Winter is Coming”
moment comes to their system. Just as war games and military planning are a necessary function of our military apparatus to be prepared for contingencies, companies must prepare similarly for these looming cyber storms. Nothing about cybersecurity can be foolproof or unbreachable. But the U.S. can come to terms with some of these questions and come up with solutions to avoid Phil Connor’s prediction of a winter that is “going to last you for the rest of your lives!” Heritage expert: Dustin Carmack <[link removed]>
Citizen’s Arrest After Ahmaud Arbery: Reasonable Reform of a Valuable Doctrine <[link removed]> – Citizen’s arrest is an important part of American law enforcement, and its complete repeal would
have significant detrimental effects for law-abiding citizens, the Second Amendment, and overall public safety. Events like Ahmaud Arbery’s tragic death, however, demonstrate that many states have citizen’s arrest statutes that would benefit from reasonable reform to make the line between citizen’s arrest and vigilantism clearer for the average citizen. Instead of reappealing these laws, states should take meaningful steps to reform convoluted or outdated statutes; impose clear, reasonable standards and duties on would-be private arrestors; and fill in other statutory gaps that could incentivize vigilantism. Heritage expert: Amy Swearer <[link removed]>

Defense budget is a future Homer Simpson problem: ‘I do not envy that guy’ <[link removed]> – Under President Biden, the Pentagon was allowed an overall
increase of 1.6%, which does not cover the projected inflation of 2.2%, let alone the actual inflation that is unfolding. Without those needed resources, the military is forced into taking so-called “necessary risks.” That’s fine if our adversaries agree to not challenge our national interests until 2030, when hopefully our R&D projects have had time to come to fruition. But the enemies of freedom are seldom agreeable. Indeed, they are always looking for windows of opportunity that they can exploit, and this budget opens the window a tad wider. If Mr. Biden’s defense budget goes through as requested, future Homer — and America’s service members — will have their hands full. Heritage expert: Frederico Bartels <[link removed]>

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