Civil Rights & Immigration
What happens when laws that suppress protests clash with our freedoms?
This commentary originally appeared in the Virginia Mercury. Americans have always held, as a matter of faith, that if they don’t like something, at least they have the freedom to raise hell about it. At a minimum, it makes them feel better — like they’ve done something. There’s even the possibility that it might lead […]
Criminalizing the vote: GOP-led states enacted 102 new election penalties after 2020
First in a two-part series. See part two here. During the 2020 election, Rhonda Briggins and her sorority sisters spent days providing voters in metro Atlanta with water and snacks as they waited in long lines at polling places. The lines for early voting and on Election Day at times stretched on for hours. As […]
Same-sex marriage and contraception at risk after abortion ruling, U.S. House panel told
WASHINGTON — Advocates told Congress on Thursday that a U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning a landmark abortion rights case is likely only the beginning, and could be followed by similar action by the high court on same-sex marriage, contraception and more. Witnesses at a U.S. House Judiciary Committee advised that to prevent that from happening, […]
Pregnant patients without access to abortion face a ‘death sentence,’ U.S. House panel told
WASHINGTON — Witnesses told a U.S. House committee on Wednesday that pregnant patients who can’t obtain abortions will face higher mortality rates if they are forced to carry their pregnancies to term. “It is essentially a death sentence,” Michele Bratcher Goodwin, the chancellor’s professor of law at the University of California, told lawmakers. Democratic state […]
Forcing 10-year-old rape victims to give birth isn’t moral, just or ‘pro-life’
For the first decades after Roe v. Wade was decided, anti-abortion forces made the case that they were the real pro-women movement. They claimed to love the sinner (the fallen woman) but hated the sin of abortion. They just wanted to save female babies. And some promised to be there with the first box of […]
As abortion crisis engulfs red states, advocates press White House for a bolder plan
WASHINGTON — Frustrated abortion rights advocates are imploring President Joe Biden to make sweeping moves to protect abortion access, saying now is the time for Democrats to be bold as Republican-led states rapidly implement restrictions and outright bans. Stymied in the U.S. Senate by the filibuster, congressional Democrats are highly unlikely to approve legislation that […]
Courts take the lead role as U.S. immigration policy remains in limbo
WASHINGTON — Eighteen months into the Biden administration, immigration reform has stalled despite campaign promises to reform the system, with the most recent movement on immigration policy doled out by the U.S. Supreme Court and in lower federal courts. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Biden administration in a 5-4 decision on June […]
Vice president discusses abortion access with Democratic legislative leaders
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris met Friday with Democratic state legislators from Indiana, Florida, South Dakota, Nebraska and Montana to discuss ways to protect reproductive rights. “The U.S. Supreme Court took away a constitutional right,” Harris said, adding that the overturning of Roe v. Wade was one of the most pressing issues facing the […]
Biden unveils executive order on abortion access, cites case of 10-year-old Ohio rape survivor
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly been criticized as slow to respond to a widely expected U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended the nationwide right to an abortion, signed an executive order Friday that could preserve some access to abortion in states where the procedure remains legal. Biden in a White House speech […]
DACA supporters in Denver call for immigration reform as court considers program’s fate
Colorado immigration activists continue to call for a permanent solution for undocumented people to receive protected status as a federal appeals court considers the fate of the program that covers childhood arrivals. “Today, (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is at risk. This is not the first time the program has been under attack by people […]
Colorado declines to help other states pursue abortion investigations, executive order from Gov. Polis says
Days after hundreds of protesters called on Gov. Jared Polis to take action in support of abortion providers and patients, the governor issued an executive order that appears to address some of the protesters’ concerns. The governor’s Wednesday order bars state agencies — except when subject to a court order — from providing medical records, […]
U.S. sues Arizona over proof of citizenship voting law
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division announced Tuesday that it has sued Arizona over a law signed by the state’s Republican governor in March that requires people registering to vote prove their citizenship to participate in a presidential election or to vote by mail in any federal election. Republican proponents of […]