Supreme Court

RECENT POSTS

How Did Prop. 8 Get to the Supreme Court? Tracking the Winding Path of Justice

Includes multimedia presentation

On March 26, the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, California’s same-sex marriage ban. Since voters approved the measure in 2008, there has been a dizzying string of state and federal court cases and appeals (and that, of course, doesn’t include the many years of political wrangling over the issue before Prop. 8 passed). Now the decision is in the hands of the High Court’s nine justices. But how did it go all the way from a California ballot measure to a Supreme Court case that could have a huge national impact? This presentation walks you through the many steps of the multi-tiered justice system that Prop. 8 had to pass through on its way to the highest court in the land.

Beneath the presentation is a diagram by the NY Times illustrating the various outcomes of the case.

Note: the presentation is best viewed in full-screen mode; use the arrows to advance and zoom in/out on any text or image

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Explaining Insurance Exchanges and Other Sexy Health Speak

includes: video resources

OK. I’m going to go out on a limb here in suggesting that the nitty gritty of Obama’s Affordable Care Act might not exactly be the most exciting topic of conversation out there (I mean, come on, what could be sexier than insurance exchanges?). But given the amount of attention the law and subsequent litigation has gotten, it’s pretty important to understand what the thing actually does, particularly for the roughly 55 million Americans who are currently without health insurance.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation did a series of short animated explainers on some of the central components of the new law. These are concepts that get thrown around a lot in the news but are pretty hard to grasp. So take a look (and just maybe, you’ll be the hit of the cocktail party):

Health Insurance Exchanges

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10 Resources To Help Make Sense of the Health Care Decision

Includes: resource links

In the week since the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling upholding key parts of President Obama’s health care law (“Obamacare”) – namely, the individual mandate that everyone buy insurance -  Americans have been inundated by an endless deluge of analysis and commentary. Making sense of it all is challenging, so here are 10 good resources that help connect the dots. Continue reading