Supreme Court Limits Contraception Mandate
BOLDUAN: Welcome back. The White House says it will fight for women's health rights after the Supreme Court really shuts down an Obamacare provision requiring employers to cover certain contraceptives. The court ruled that corporations objecting a religious ground cannot be forced to cover certain drugs, including the morning after pill. The five more conservative justices in the majority argued that the law violates the religious rights of some companies, but critics including some of those in the court say this ruling could have negative implications far beyond this case. Let's discuss with Errol Louis, CNN political commentator and political anchor at New York 1 News. And Ryan Lizza, CNN political commentator and Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker." Good morning, gentlemen.</s>ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.</s>RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I was joking with Errol.</s>BOLDUAN: Let's solve the problems of the Supreme Court and immigration reform in a few minutes, if we could. That's easy enough, right? So, Errol, what do you think? What is the real impact, do you think, of this as we're calling the Hobby Lobby decision?</s>LOUIS: Well -- I mean, the negative implications remain to be seen because the issue is not so much this particular case, but the next case. So, this gives for the millions of closely held companies that are run by people with sincere religious beliefs, this gives them be a opening, if they so choose to import their religious beliefs into their business in a way that has never really been done before. And we don't know how far it's going to reach or how much controversy it's going to stir, but what we do know is that there was something like 17 million women of child bearing age who are uninsured and a lot of them are going to run afoul of what their players believe which up until now they had no reason to worry about.</s>BOLDUAN: Do you think, I mean, Ryan, you weigh in. What do you think the real impact is? Are the concerns, I mean, Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the court herself even talking about the breadth is startling of this decision. Do you think the concerns of how far the negative implications in their view could go are overblown?</s>LIZZA: Yes, you're right. I mean, Alito and Ginsburg said two different things, Alito said not to worry, this is a very limited ruling. It won't get out of control just because we're allowing corporations for the first time to -- to say they can opt out of laws based on their religious beliefs, we don't believe there are very many cases where this is actually going to happen and Ginsburg came in and said you're wrong. You've opened the floodgates for giving corporations all kinds of excuses. She actually mentioned what if a corporation said it was against their religious beliefs to -- to support the minimum wage. So, she was literally saying --</s>BOLDUAN: She listed out a bunch of things, blood transfusions, anti- depressants, medications derive from pigs, vaccinations, I mean, a list of things.</s>LIZZA: But, Kate, even beyond just medical procedures and stuff that relates to the health care law, she started to say -- well, what about the minimum wage, what if you think that violates religious beliefs? And Alito, in his opinion said, he doesn't buy it. He doesn't believe this opens the floodgates. That remains to be seen. I think on Obamacare, very narrowly, this doesn't gut the core of Obamacare. We have to be careful to not exaggerate what it does. It's one kind of coverage for women who work for these very specific corporations who are asserting this religious carve-out.</s>BOLDUAN: Errol, is this likely to be a galvanizing issue in the mid- term elections? That's, of course, the immediate thing people are talking about, if you don't like it, you should do something about it. If you do like it we can applaud and you should also do something about it, you should get out and vote. I mean, Republicans, they see this as a win for religious freedom. They see this as yet another sign of President Obama overreaching with his health care law. Democrats see this as a wake-up call and a threat to women's rights.</s>LOUIS: Oh, absolutely. I subscribe to lots of different political organizations, just so I can see what the chatter is about, and really within minutes of the Supreme Court's decision being sort of read, publicized and the implications becoming known. The fund-raising went out immediately from the Democrats, war on women. You've got to -- you've got to contribute, you've got to do it before the deadline. Yesterday, conveniently, was a fund-raising deadline for federal elections and we can expect that to go all the way through the elections and I think the elections may have noticed over the last couple of cycles, when the Democrats really get a head of steam claiming there's a war on women and that religious conservatives and other part of the Republican base are driving it. It really doesn't work out that well for Republicans in most cases. So, I think probably the Democrats have more energy and more initiative on this particular issue. If you want to take a victory lap as a religious conservative and say, look, you know, thank God, the court ruled the way we did -- well, that's one thing, but that's fairly passive. That's not going to get people to the polls necessarily come November.</s>BOLDUAN: Yes, anger gets people to the polls more than happiness, unfortunately, is the way it is. Ryan, let's transition to a big day in Washington, a big day at the White House, too. The president coming out to talk about how he's going to move forward as much as he can with immigration reform measures through executive action. Let's listen to a little bit of what he said in his announcement.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue and Congress chooses to do nothing. And in this situation the failure of House Republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security, it's bad for our economy and it's bad for our future.</s>BOLDUAN: This one makes me scratch my head just a little bit because he's talking about essentially through this executive action is using his existing Department of Homeland Security beefing up border security. Correct me, if I'm wrong on this one --</s>LIZZA: Everyone should be happy.</s>BOLDUAN: That's what I'm thinking, but Republicans, they're not happy. John Boehner came out, calling it, saying it's sad and disappointing that President Obama won't work with us, instead intent on going it alone with the executive orders that can't and won't fix these problems.</s>LIZZA: Yes. There's a lot of fear in this one, Kate. I think Obama has now for political reasons, because of the midterm elections and because he can't get anything through Congress, he has an interest in being seen as doing more than he's actually capable on his own so he's real emphasizing the executive actions and we all know to fix the immigration system you need legislation out of Congress. So, he has an interest in sort of arguing he's doing more than he can and, of course, Boehner and the Republicans who have a lot of stake arguing that Obama is out of control and an imperial president. Instead of them saying, which was more typical of a previous era, the president is not doing enough to control the border, they are saying --</s>BOLDUAN: This is too much.</s>LIZZA: He's usurping our powers.</s>BOLDUAN: I want to get your take on this. Do you agree with Ryan that -- that this is kind of a real interesting time because as he was saying, there's a little bit or let's be honest a lot of bit of politics involved here because on the flip side, it should come as no surprise to President Obama that there's not going to be any action on immigration reform this year. We've known that for a long time. He comes out yesterday saying, well, you're finally -- you're not going to act so I'm going to do what I can do.</s>LOUIS: Well, that's right. I mean, to be sure, the president is playing some politics here. He's wanted some action on this bill. He wants to use the crisis as an example of why they need action on the bill. All fine and good. And, frankly, what Congress is doing is understandable politics, especially in an election year. What's not going to work for either side, I think they're going to both discover is that there're going to be rage in the populace because we're going to see thousands of kids in really compromised dangerous situations. We're already starting to see fatalities and so forth and for them not to be able to get together, this is not something they can devolve down to the states. They can't pass this to the private sector --</s>BOLDUAN: Or put off.</s>LOUIS: They can't put it off any longer. You know, there's a crisis at hand, and they are going to have to deal with it, and, you know, when we start to see more and more press about what's happening to these kids, these thousands and thousands of kids who are in such desperate dire straits, when we start sending reporters back to El Salvador and Honduras and Guatemala to see the conditions that they are fleeing, I think there's going to be real anger at both sides of Capitol Hill for not getting this stuff done.</s>BOLDUAN: Yes, I think while there's still unlikely to be any real immigration reform by the end of the year, there was one Democratic Congress had a really interesting line, the antidote to doing nothing is to do something; and I know that probably is one of their political message but it does resonate with voters. That's for sure. Errol, Ryan, thanks so much, guys.</s>LIZZA: Thanks, Kate.</s>BOLDUAN: All right. Michaela?</s>PEREIRA: All right. Kate, great conversation there. Next up on NEW DAY, we're watching the weather. There's a hurricane forming and it's expected to impact the East Coast this Friday. What does all this mean for your Fourth of July plans? We'll have that for you in moments. First one, though, get south to Brazil. Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, hey, Chris, the guys in the studio wanted to know if that shirt came in men's sizes.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, that stings. They're just jealous. Let the haters hate, Mick. This is all me and it's all American enthusiasm. You're talking about a storm back home. There's a bigger one brewing right here. It's starting to swirl in the stadium behind us. It's American energy. What happens when the U.S. takes it to Belgium? How do they win this game and move on? Because otherwise they have to go home and wait until you see the American experience here. This jersey is the least of the guys' worries back home. It's a great place to be and we'll take you there in a minute.