"The Office of Personnel Management shall cease at once its interference with the jurisdiction of this tribunal," wrote Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. He gave the Administration 30 days to permit Karen Golinski, a lawyer employed by the Ninth Circuit, to include the woman she married under California law last year on her family health-insurance plan. "Some branch must have the final say on a law's meaning. At least as to laws governing judicial employees, that is entirely our duty and our province. We would not be a co-equal branch of government otherwise."And the Obama Administration's response?
The head of the Office of Personnel Management is an openly gay man. Hence, this openly gay appointee of President Barack Obama has ordered the Blue Cross not to follow the order of the court to provide insurance to the lesbian couple.The order was not published, and garnered little or no notice at the time. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts moved to comply with the judge's ruling, submitting Golinski's insurance form to Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the case would have probably gone away — had the Obama Administration not stepped in. "After the AO submitted Ms. Golinski's form, I thought this matter had concluded," Kozinski wrote. "The Executive Branch, acting through the Office of Personnel Management, thought otherwise. It directed the insurance carrier not to process Ms. Golinski's form 2809, thwarting the relief I had ordered. I must now decide what further steps are necessary to protect Ms. Golinski and the integrity of the Judiciary's EDR [employee dispute resolution] plans."
How's that commitment for equal rights for the GLBT community working for you, Mr. President?
H/T to AMERICAblog for the heads up on this. And do go and register your pledge on Don't Ask, Don't Give.
2 comments:
Why? Toward what just purpose?
As we say around here, "for CRYING out LOUD!"
The Janus-like duplicity of this administration is troubling. Lemon water with crushed Advil, good bartender...
--------------> \_/ I've added a shot of whiskey to the lemon watter with crushed Advil.
At least with the Bush administration, you knew they were lying to your face, and you could deal with that type of cowardice. But with this administration, it's like talking out of both sides of the mouth -- yes we are for GLBT rights, but just don't make us actually do anything for any of you, because we won't. We'll just take your money and pretend we give a shit.
Well, the Democrats and Obama have an interesting lesson to learn next year, once they realize they don't have the "people" behind them anymore. Then, they actually won't be any different than the Bush administration.
Post a Comment