Court Rules in Favor of Facial Hair

The article, "Ban on Prison Beards Violates Muslim Rights, Supreme Court Says", discusses a recent Supreme Court on a Muslim's right to grow a beard in prison for religious reasons. The prisoner is in an Arkansas prison and was denied the right to grow a half-inch beard. In its defense, the prison stated that the rule was for security issues as they were concerned that the prisoner may hide weapons or a SIM card in his beard. When examining this case, the Supreme Court first looked to see if the ban was burdening to a religious practice, which they deemed it was. The Court then had to see if the defense had a compelling reason for this rule. Justice Alito struck down any notion of a compelling reason by stating that the contraband would have to be very small to keep in a half inch beard while making sure that it did not fall out. Justice Alito also noted that the prison does not have a rule on the restriction of haircuts for the inmates, so a prisoner would be more likely to keep contraband in his long hair instead of his half inch beard. After all of this debate and discussion occurred, the Supreme Court came to a unanimous ruling of striking this prison law down.

In my opinion, I agree with the Supreme Court on this ruling. A man should be able to practice his religion to a reasonable extent while incarcerated. The request of the inmate was reasonable as he did not ask for a full, ZZ top like beard (Picture), just half an inch. It would be nearly impossible for the inmate to hold anything harmful in a beard of that length. Arkansas is one of the few states who still has a ban on short beards for inmates. Shockingly, all of these states are in the South. In conclusion, the Supreme Court made right decision concerning a reasonable matter of religious liberty.

Taxes never go away

In his 2015 State of the Union, President Obama discussed the tax situation of our great nation. The article, "Tax Loopholes the President Left Out – for Now", discusses President Obama's proposed tax plans in economic terms. In very general terms, President Obama mentioned closing loopholes on taxes for the wealthy and big end corporations. By closing these loopholes, the President claims that he will be able to lower the tax rate for middle class families since the upper class will be paying its correct amount. According to the article, it will take a lot of tinkering and adjusting to fully close these loopholes. If President Obama's plan is put through, the projected tax revenue will increase from $1.4 billion to $320 billion over the next ten years.

My analysis is mostly positive for this plan. Our country does need more revenue in order to decrease the national debt. However, I feel that it is unfair to overtax the wealthy just because they are successful. If this plan is just closing loopholes that corporations and wealthy people use to get out of what they really owe, I am fine with that. I would have a problem though if they are just raising taxes on the wealthy just to cut those of the middle class. Income inequality is an issue, but I do not believe that increased taxation is the correct answer.

Diversity Comes to Congress

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When a person looks at a new Congress for the first time, a person will first look at the party balance. After that, a person should at the backgrounds of the members themselves. The articles "Most Diverse Congress in History Poised to Take Power" and "The New Congress is 80 Percent White, 80 Percent Male and 92 Percent Christian" outline the demographics of the 114th Congress. The latter headline does not make this new Congress seem that diverse, however, this Congress is, as the first headline stated, the "Most Diverse Congress in History". The highest number of female members in Congressional history will be in the 114th Congress. Another landmark can be found in the election the first African-American Republican woman, Mia Love (Utah). Concerning race, the Congress is mostly White (442) with minorities of African-Americans (46), Hispanics (33), Asian-Americans (12), and Native-Americans (2).  As for the aspect of religion, the Congress is, once again, overwhelmingly Christian. There are, however, some other religions represented including 28 Jews, 2 Buddhists, 2 Muslims, and 1 Hindu.

In my opinion, increased diversity in Congress is a good thing. It shows the reflection on modern times and advancing society. Increased presence of minorities in Congress will hopefully strike a blow to the systemic racism in America (which does exist Vlogbrothers Link). I also like the new ratios between certain demographics as I feel that they proportionally represent the population as a whole in these demographics. All in all, let us all, as citizens, hope that this new, diverse Congress can help advance America and keep Her great.