Saturday, March 19, 2011

Why the Presidency & Supreme Court matter to the worker

Does the person who is president matter when it comes to the detriment of the average worker? Yes, it does matter. The president is the one who selects the candidates for the U.S. Supreme Court; and remember, the Supreme Court giveth and taketh away.
Examples of this ‘give and take’ that have hurt the workers include: 
The 2000 Supreme Court ruling that gave George W. Bush the presidency over Al Gore
The 2010 Supreme Court ruling that gave Citizens United aka corporations the same status as a person and that corporations could give unlimited political campaigns contributions without revealing the source.
In 1959, the Supreme Court invoked the Taft-Hartley Act against steel workers. 
In 1938, the Supreme Court rules that sit-down strikes are illegal.
In 1924, the Supreme Court ruled that child-labor laws were unconstitutional.
In 1915, the Supreme Court upholds ‘yellow dog contracts,’ which forbids membership in Labor Unions.
In 1905, the Supreme Court held that a maximum hours law unconditional.
In 1898, the Supreme Court invalidated the Erdman Act, which had given railroad workers the right to strike and belong to a union.
While some of these were reversed, it’s unclear at this time with the Supreme Court we have now how long it will be before the Supreme Court reverses the remainder of the workers’ protections. Today, we know about the attack on the unions in 14 states, how many know that Missouri legislators are trying to weaken the child labor laws? The last resort for a court  case is the Supreme Court.

Hopefully, these examples show why the office of the presidency is so important to the working class.
A search of the Internet or library would provide more information and examples that dates back to the 1700s.