By Katie Halper • @kthalps • 10 years ago

Watch: Video mocks the old boys’ club of the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court’s recent decisions have been depressing and disturbing, to say the least, especially when it comes to reproductive rights. But why not laugh instead of after you cry? In this Funny or Die exclusive “Supreme Court: No Girls Allowed” video, we get a behind-the-scenes look at the old boys’ club of the court, as the male justices try to keep the ladies our of their blanket fort. The amazing Martha Plimpton (of Feministing Five fame) stars as Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

You may have noticed that the Supreme Court has been getting all up in people’s business, when it comes to contraceptives. Interestingly enough, the male Supreme Court justices are especially comfortable legislating ovaries, which is particularly ironic for the more conservative jurists who favor a small government, just small enough, I suppose, to fit comfortably in a uterus. In the infamous Hobby Lobby case, for example, five male judges were fine with telling women that their bosses could decide whether they were entitled to birth control, thank you very much, while the three female justices, and Justice Breyer, didn’t think that was such a good idea. In Wheaton College v. Burwell, it was even more divided by gender: the three female justices ruled that the evangelical Protestant college did not have the right to deny coverage for contraception; the six male judges disagreed.

Transcript available here.

Related:
In aftermath of Hobby Lobby decision, major LGBT groups withdraw support for ENDA
What does Hobby Lobby mean for LGBT employment discrimination?
In the wake of the Hobby Lobby ruling, what happens next?
Breaking: SCOTUS rules that your boss can deny you birth control coverage

Screen Shot 2013-10-28 at 11.13.50 PM Katie Halper writes and films and standups. 

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Born and raised on the mean streets of New York City’s Upper West Side, Katie Halper is a comic, writer, blogger, satirist and filmmaker based in New York. Katie graduated from The Dalton School (where she teaches history) and Wesleyan University (where she learned that labels are for jars.) A director of Living Liberally and co-founder/performer in Laughing Liberally, Katie has performed at Town Hall, Symphony Space, The Culture Project, D.C. Comedy Festival, all five Netroots Nations, and The Nation Magazine Cruise, where she made Howard Dean laugh! and has appeared with Lizz Winstead, Markos Moulitsas, The Yes Men, Cynthia Nixon and Jim Hightower. Her writing and videos have appeared in The New York Times, Comedy Central, The Nation Magazine, Gawker, Nerve, Jezebel, the Huffington Post, Alternet and Katie has been featured in/on NY Magazine, LA Times, In These Times, Gawker,Jezebel, MSNBC, Air America, GritTV, the Alan Colmes Show, Sirius radio (which hung up on her once) and the National Review, which called Katie “cute and some what brainy.” Katie co-produced Tim Robbins’s film Embedded, (Venice Film Festival, Sundance Channel); Estela Bravo’s Free to Fly (Havana Film Festival, LA Latino Film Festival); was outreach director for The Take, Naomi Klein/Avi Lewis documentary about Argentine workers (Toronto & Venice Film Festivals, Film Forum); co-directed New Yorkers Remember the Spanish Civil War, a video for Museum of the City of NY exhibit, and wrote/directed viral satiric videos including Jews/ Women/ Gays for McCain.

Katie is a writer, comedian, filmmaker, and New Yorker.

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