The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed today to hear two cases involving same-sex marriage. The first involves a challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines for purposes of federal law, that marriage is the union of a man and a woman.  

 

DOMA was struck down by two federal Circuit courts as unconstitutional. The other case involves California's Proposition 8, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman under California state law.    

 

Prop 8 was ruled to be unconstitutional by the Ninth Circuit federal appeals court in San Francisco. Oral argument in the two cases will be in March and a decision from the Supreme Court is expected in June, 2013. The ruling could have significant implications for the Catholic Church, which has consistently stood firm in its efforts opposing the re-definition of marriage.

 

For more information, click here.  

 

A three-judge panel of Missouri's Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis recently granted a temporary injunction on behalf of O'Brien Industries, effectively blocking implementation of the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate as it applies to the private St. Louis business and its owner Frank O'Brien. The injunction is a temporary but encouraging victory in the ongoing effort to defend the religious liberty of Catholic employers in their battle to protect them from having to provide and pay for contraception, sterilization, and potentially abortifacient drugs in the health plans they offer their employees.  

 

For more on the story, click here.

The Medicaid expansion offered to states under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) would allow custodial parents and single adults with incomes at or below 138% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) to obtain Medicaid health coverage. This would allow a mother with two children to qualify if her annual income was at or below $26,344.

 

At present Missouri prohibits the participation by single adults and only allows custodial parents to participate in Medicaid if their income is at or below 18% of FPL. Some earned income may be disregarded so that a custodial parent can qualify with an annual income of up to 35% FPL. Still, this is very low income; it means that a mother with two children can only qualify for Medicaid under Missouri's present program if she has an annual income of at or below $6,682.  

 

Missouri's present eligibility level for custodial parents is one of the lowest in the nation, 42 other states and Washington, D.C., all have higher FPL criteria for coverage of parents than Missouri does. 

 

Prior to 2005 Missouri allowed custodial parents to qualify with annual incomes up to 75% of FPL. The MCC opposed the 2005 Medicaid cuts in which about 100,000 Missourians lost their Medicaid health coverage.

With this Capitol Update, the MCC begins a series on the Dollars and Sense of Medicaid Expansion, drawing from a new report-- The Economic Impacts of Medicaid Expansion on Missouri -- prepared by the University of Missouri School of Medicine in conjunction with Dobson DaVanzo & Associates, LLC, Vienna, VA.

 

The State of Missouri faces a decision about whether to opt into a Medicaid expansion offered under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). States can begin  to opt into the expansion in January of 2014. Debate over whether to expand Medicaid will be a key issue in the 2013 session of the Missouri General Assembly.

 

The University of Missouri report uses a professional analysis tool called IMPLAN 3.0 to measure the economic impact in Missouri of the infusion of new federal dollars from the Medicaid Expansion. The economic impact includes not only direct effects, such as the creation of new jobs at health clinics and hospitals, but also indirect effects, such as new employment generated by businesses that supply material or supplies to health care facilities, and induced effects from increased retail sales generated due to the creation of the new jobs.

 

The executive summary offers these key findings:

• The Medicaid expansion will "generate an additional 24,008 jobs in Missouri in 2014."

• "Labor income in the state is projected to increase by nearly $7 billion during the period 2014 to 2020."

• "The total effects (direct, indirect and induced) of the original $856 billion in Medicaid expansion is an additional $9.6 billion of value-added output to the state."

• "The Medicaid expansion will generate $856 million in additional state and local taxes from 2014 to 2020 and $1.4 billion in federal taxes due to the increase in jobs and economic activity, for a total tax collected of $2.3 billion."

Although the 2013 session of the Missouri General Assembly begins Wednesday, January 9, legislators began pre-filing bills on December 1. Here is a quick list of some of the bills that have been pre-filed so far:

 

HB 31

Sponsor: Rep. Chuck Gatschenberger (R-Lake St. Louis)

Description: Specifies that the constitutions and laws of the United States and Missouri must protect the rights of an alternatives-to-abortion agency and its officers to freely engage in activities without interference.

 

HB 37

Sponsor: Rep. Jeff Roorda (D-Barnhart)

Description: Requires certain retailers to be closed between the hours of 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.

 

SB 14

Sponsor: Sen. Rob Schaaf (R-St. Joseph)

Description: Raises Medicaid eligibility for the aged, blind and disabled population by lowering the eligibility for pregnant women and children if tax credits are available in a federal exchange.

 

SB 20

Sponsor: Sen. Bob Dixon (R-Springfield)

Description: Reestablishes certain tax credits, including credits for pregnancy resource centers and food pantries which expired last year.

 

SB 31

Sponsor: Sen. John Lamping (R-Clayton)

Description: Increases the tax on cigarettes by 26 cents, modifies the state individual income tax rate, and increases the state sales and use tax by one-half percent.

 

SB 50

Sponsor: Sen. Wayne Wallingford (R-Cape Girardeau)

Description: Provides protections for Alternatives to Abortion Agencies to freely assemble and freely engage in religious practices and speech without governmental interference.

 

SB 55

Sponsor: Sen. John Lamping (R-Clayton)

Description: Amends laws relating to unsecured loans of $500 or less.

 

SB 61

Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Keaveny (D-St. Louis)

Description: Requires the state Auditor to compare the costs of death penalty cases and first-degree murder cases in which the death penalty is not sought.

Thanks to many network members who took the time to respond to our article last week regarding opening retail stores on Thanksgiving and returning to the "Blue Laws" that closed stores on Sundays. The majority of you who responded were opposed to the practice of opening stores on Thanksgiving and many longed for the return of the "Blue Laws."

"I would appreciate the return of some form of sanity in the workplace in regards to holiday labor and hours of work," wrote one network member. "It is appalling how materialism has invaded our family life," wrote another. One noted that the power to change this practice is with the customers. "If customers refused to patronize these stores that are opening on Thanksgiving, the merchants would stay closed."

 

In regards to the "Blue Laws" many remembered Sundays fondly as a "family day." One commenter said, "This country of ours would be a much better place if families could be families at least one day a week."  

 

Yet not everyone wanted the stores closed on Sundays. "Do we have to make a moral issue out of everything in today's society? Today is Saturday and I'm working. I appreciate that stores are open on Sunday. Those sales persons still get other days off."

 

Your varied comments show that there are no simplistic solutions to this issue but in sharing ideas we can learn from each other and better understand the complexity of the situation.

Rep. Jeff Roorda (D-Barnhart) must have been reading our article last week on Thanksgiving shopping. This week he announced that he plans to introduce legislation that would prohibit retail stores from opening on Thanksgiving. Calling it the "Thanksgiving Family Protection Act," Rep. Roorda stated in a press release that the holiday should be about families and not about profit or greed. Thanksgiving should not become "Black Friday eve."

 

The legislation would exempt restaurants, gas stations, and pharmacies from forced closure. Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine require businesses to close on that day as well.

 

If Rep. Roorda gets his way, workers and shoppers won't have to rush from Thanksgiving dinner to head to the retail stores.

N.Y. Court Permits N.Y. Archdiocese Lawsuit to Continue

 

A federal district judge in New York has allowed a lawsuit by the Archdiocese of New York challenging the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate to continue, issuing a ruling contrary to other federal district courts, which have ruled such plaintiffs do not have legal standing to sue, because the HHS regulations aren't final.  

 

In a rebuff to arguments made by the Obama administration, the judge wrote in support of his decision to allow the lawsuit to continue that "There is no 'Trust us, changes are coming' clause in the Constitution." The judge was persuaded that the Archdiocese has suffered injury based upon expenses it is incurring now in efforts to prepare for the onerous mandate and its effects.  

 

For the full story, click here.