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MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2014
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Police need a warrant to search cellphones
theworldlink.com
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Clamboree serves up fun
BY KRISTIAN FODEN-VENCIL Oregon Public Broadcasting
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police officers usually need a warrant before searching the cellphone of an arrested suspect. It’s a win for people concerned about privacy rights in the digital age and a set back for police searches. Oregon’s Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum, seemed unconcerned by the decision. Rosenblum doesn’t think the ruling will make a great difference to the way police work here. “Typically when a search is done incident to an arrest, if a cell phone is taken they often do obtain a warrant,” she said. “They take it into the station, they get a warrant and then they search it.” Rosenblum said she hasn’t had a chance to read the ruling yet. But as a previous federal prosecutor and state trial judge, she’s not worried. “And I don’t actually think that it worries most law enforcement a whole lot,” she said. “As a matter of fact, I was just in a session during our symposium on Internet privacy where a police officer from the Salem Police Department said he had no quarrel with the Supreme Court’s decision.” Last year, as the cell phone case was making its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Rosenblum tried to look into how it would affect cases here. “I did inquire as to whether there were cases on appeal that were similar to this and there might be one or two, but
Photos by Alysha Beck, The World
Shawn Hanlin, executive director at Oregon Coast Culinary Institute, serves bowls of clam chowder at the Clamboree in Empire on Saturday.
SEE WARRANT | A8
Supreme Court ruling against union fees
More online: See the photo gallery of the Clamboree event in Empire online at theworldlink.com.
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that some corporations can hold religious objections that allow them to opt out of the new health law requirement that they cover contraceptives for women. The justices’ 5-4 decision is the first time that the high court has ruled that profit-seeking businesses can hold religious views under federal law. And it means the Obama administration must search for a different way of providing free contraception to women who are covered under objecting compa-
nies’ health insurance plans. Contraception is among a range of preventive services that must be provided at no extra charge under the health care law that President Barack Obama signed in 2010 and the Supreme Court upheld two years later. Two years ago, Chief Justice John Roberts cast the pivotal vote that saved the health care law in the midst of Obama’s campaign for reelection. On Monday, dealing with a small sliver of the law, Roberts sided with the four justices who would have struck down the law in its entirety. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion. The court’s four
liberal justices dissented. The court stressed that its ruling applies only to corporations, like the Hobby Lobby chain of artsand-craft stores, that are under the control of just a few people in which there is no essential difference between the business and its owners. Alito also said the decision is limited to contraceptives under the health care law. “Our decision should not be understood to hold that an insurance-coverage mandate must necessarily fall if it conflicts with an employer’s religious beliefs,” Alito said. He suggested two ways the administration could ensure
women get the contraception they want. It could simply pay for pregnancy prevention, he said. Or it could provide the same kind of accommodation it has made available to religious-oriented, not-for-profit corporations. Those groups can tell the government that providing the coverage violates their religious beliefs. At that point, the groups’ insurers or a third-party administrator takes on the responsibility of paying for the birth control. The accommodation is the subject of separate legal challenges, but the court said Monday that the SEE EMPLOYERS | A8
Business exec tapped to oversee troubled VA WASHINGTON — Seeking to turn around a troubled agency, President Barack Obama will nominate former Procter & Gamble executive Robert McDonald to lead a Veterans Affairs department gripped by reports of treatment delays and cover-ups. An administration official said Obama planned to nominate
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McDonald to the Cabinet post Monday. If confirmed by the Senate, the 61-year-old McDonald would succeed Eric Shinseki, the retired four-star general who resigned last month as the scope of the issues at veterans’ hospitals became apparent. McDonald’s nomination signals that the president put a premium on management experience as he
The Associated Press
SEE VETERANS | A8
President Barack Obama is selecting former Procter and Gamble executive Robert McDonald, seen here in 2011, as his choice to be secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Bilingual diploma Evelyn Gould, Coos Bay
Obituaries | A5
Corvallis High School graduates more than a dozen students from their duallanguage program. Page A5
FORECAST
BY JULIE PACE The Associated Press
STATE
SEE UNIONS | A8
BY MARK SHERMAN
DEATHS
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court dealt a blow to public sector unions Monday, ruling that thousands of home health care workers in Illinois cannot be required to pay fees that help cover the union’s costs of collective bargaining. In a 5-4 split along ideological lines, the justices said the practice violates the First Amendment rights of nonmembers who disagree with the positions that unions take. The ruling is a setback for labor unions that have bolstered their ranks — and bank accounts — in Illinois and other states by signing up hundreds of thousands of inhome care workers. It could lead to an exodus of members who will have little incentive to pay dues if nonmembers don’t have to share the burden of union costs. But the ruling was limited to this particular segment of workers — not private sector unions — and it stopped short of overturning decades of practice that has generally allowed public sector unions to pass through their representation costs to nonmembers. Writing for the court, Justice Samuel Alito said home care workers are different from other types of government employees because they work primarily for their disabled or elderly customers and do not have most of the rights and benefits of state employees. The case involves about 26,000
INSIDE
A passerby takes a photo of Craig and Corinne Spotts’1956 Mercury on display at the Clamboree. Craig had a drive-in movie theater speaker wired to the car to play music.
Justices: Can’t make employers cover contraception
BY SAM HANANEL The Associated Press
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Bob Sasanoff shows off the drift boat that will be raffled off in August at the Coos Bay Boat Building Center, which was open to the public during Clamboree.
Sunny, breezy 68/57 Weather | A8