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Big Docket Gets Bigger: Supreme Court Grants
Review in Case on Employees’ Religious Rights <[link removed]> - In the 3rd Circuit’s ruling, the appeals court cited the statement in the Hardison decision that requiring an employer to provide a religious accommodation at more than a de minimis cost is an undue hardship that excuses the
employer from having to accommodate the employee at all. But the court went even further, holding that the “undue hardship” standard is met if a religious accommodation could have a potentially adverse impact on the business’s other employees, rather than just on the business itself. That’s an outcome that would weaponize employee relations, pitting employee against employee in unprecedented ways. Think, for example, of an employee assigned to work Sundays so that a religious colleague who wants to recognize the Sabbath can be accommodated. It wouldn’t take much for the employee who works Sundays to claim the cost to him or her was more than “de minimis.” Heritage Expert: Sarah Parshall Perry <[link removed]>
Biden’s pursuit of racial Balkanization will further divide the country <[link removed]> -
President Joe Biden came into office promising to be a unifier, but make no mistake, he’s rapidly becoming the divider-in-chief. He is now reviving former President Barack Obama <[link removed]> ’s idea of adding yet one more racial category to our Balkanized nation and effectively turning Hispanics into a race, not an ethnicity. Heritage Expert: Mike Gonzalez <[link removed]>
Conservative Groups Are Building An Army of Personnel To Take Over the Government <[link removed]> - The group says its policy agenda will remain consistent regardless of who wins the GOP presidential nomination <[link removed]> in 2024. “The work from this coalition will reflect where there are differences within the conservative movement and will provide candidates with a menu of options that they can choose from,” a spokesperson told the Daily Caller. “A campaign may choose to adopt some aspects of the policy agenda that we provide them with, but we’re really working on bringing the movement together to provide candidates, and an eventual nominee, with a consensus of the policies conservatives hope to see from the next conservative president,” the spokesperson added. Project 2025 builds off The Heritage Foundation’s “Mandate for Leadership,” which has provided guidance for presidential administrations since the Reagan era. The Trump <[link removed]> administration relied heavily on Heritage’s “Mandate” for its policy agenda and embraced two-thirds of its proposals, the Project 2025 website <[link removed]> states. Heritage Expert: Paul Dans <[link removed]> & Spencer Chretien <[link removed]>
The Fed Is Punishing Americans for the Problems It Created. It’s Time to Rein It In. <[link removed]> - First, Fed policy has a lag, meaning its effects are not felt until some time after its implementation—often months. To determine what today’s interest rate policy should be actually requires knowledge of future conditions—an impossibility. Thus, the Fed is doomed to mistime its attempts. Second, there is a political incentive to time interest rate decisions for the benefit of politicians. Despite a veil of independence, the Fed has lost credibility as a nonpolitical institution. The solution is for Congress to remove this dual mandate from the Fed so that its only goals are price stability and the moderation of long-term interest rates, not promoting full employment. Thus, when the government wants to spend money it doesn’t have, the Fed would have no excuse to create the money for the Treasury and thereby cause rampant inflation <[link removed]>. And by removing an artificial boom from overspending, the subsequent bust is also eliminated, smoothing out the fluctuations of the business cycle instead of exacerbating them. Heritage Expert: EJ Antoni <[link removed]>, Richard Stern <[link removed]>, and Rachel Greszler <[link removed]>
House to vote on 'Pandemic Is Over' bill one day after Biden announces end to COVID-19 emergency <[link removed]> - The House is poised to enact legislation that would formally end the Covid-19 national medical emergency first declared by President Trump on March 13, 2020. If the House should enact this change, it would confirm the sound policy already enacted by the Senate, which already voted to end the national medical emergency by a vote of 62 to 36. The CDC has reported that high levels of vaccine and natural immunity have substantially reduced the risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death. The CDC also stated that these changes enable public health authorities to reduce restrictions on social and economic activity. So, the House is proposing a policy change in accordance with the evidence provided by federal public health authorities. Heritage Expert: Bob Moffit <[link removed]>
What Jerry Seinfeld’s “Black Card” Can Teach Lawmakers About the Debt Limit <[link removed]> - Already, the U.S. has accumulated $31.4 trillion in federal debt—the equivalent of $242,000 per household. If the federal government’s borrowing were subject to the same constraints as ordinary households and it actually had to repay its borrowing, every household in America would suddenly have two mortgage or rent payments each month, instead of just one. (At $220,000 in 2021, average mortgage debt was slightly lower than each household’s share of the federal debt). But unlike ordinary households—and unlike even exclusive Black Card holders—the federal government can simply vote to raise or temporarily waive its debt limits. If, however, policymakers were to agree to meaningful spending reductions and pro-growth policy reforms in exchange for a specified increase in the debt limit, they could help avoid a fiscal crisis and start reducing the second-mortgage equivalent of federal debt that looms over every household in America. Heritage Expert: Rachel Greszler <[link removed]>
Mother Tells How Daughter Fell Victim
to Trafficking After School Hid Her Gender Identity. New Bill Aims to Prevent Such Tragedy <[link removed]>. - “Parents know their children best,” the legislator noted. “When schools drive a wedge between parents and students, and hide these life-changing conversations and decisions from parents, important aspects of the child’s overall well-being are not taken into account by those involved in the decision. Sage’s ‘gender-identity transition’ and subsequent introduction into sex trafficking took place quickly after she moved to a new school, where staff affirmed Sage’s new gender without knowing important aspects of her fragile condition.” … “Sage said she doesn’t know who she was back then,” Michele added. “She wasn’t a boy. She just wanted to have friends. But her school, the judge, the attorney, and the doctor were all blinded by ideology.” Heritage Expert: Tyler O’Neil <[link removed]>
Iowa Mark National School Choice Week by Enacting Students First Act <[link removed]> - In Iowa,
the Students First Act <[link removed]> was approved by state lawmakers this week and was signed into law by Reynolds on Tuesday. The education freedom bill <[link removed]> will allow Iowa families who opt their children out of the public school system to access the state’s portion of per-pupil spending—about $7,600—through an ESA to use for private school
tuition, tutoring, textbooks, curricular materials, special-needs therapy, and more. Heritage Expert: Madison Marino <[link removed]>
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