READ ON SUBSTACK The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Texas over the state’s refusal to remove a 1,000-foot buoy barrier system it placed in the Rio Grande River to “secure the border.” The buoys are tethered to the bottom of the river “with thick cables and concrete bases,” to prevent people from swimming under. …
Read on Substack Heat waves Climate change is causing the Earth’s temperature to rise, which is leading to more deadly heat waves across the globe. According to the World Meteorological Organization, this July is the hottest month on record, with 21 of the first 23 days of July hotter than any previous days in the database. High …
Read on Substack Tennessee Tennessee made it more difficult for people convicted of felonies to restore their voting rights, creating what voting rights advocates call the most “strenuous and confusing” system in the nation. Background Two residents of Tennessee who were convicted of felonies in other states but had their voting rights restored were denied …
Read on Substack MEDICAL RECORDS 18 Republican attorneys general are seeking out-of-state medical records in order to investigate and potentially prosecute people who have an abortion in less-restrictive states. In April, the Biden administration proposed a new HIPAA rule to prohibit healthcare providers from sharing an individual’s health information when the purpose is “to investigate, sue, or …
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorizes funding levels and provides authorities for the U.S. military and other critical defense priorities, ensuring U.S. troops have the training, equipment, and resources they need to carry out their missions. The House NDAA passed last week would authorize $874.2 billion in national defense spending, including $841.5 billion for …
Iowa abortion ban Iowa Republicans passed a ban on abortion after 6 weeks of pregnancy in the middle of the night Tuesday during a one day special session. The bill, House File 732, claims to ban abortion after a “fetal heartbeat” is detected. However, there is no actual heartbeat at 6 weeks of gestation because the heart of …
The state of Louisiana asked the 5th Circuit on Thursday to require a district court to consider throwing out Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act — a move designed to bring the case to the conservative Supreme Court majority. Background The case, Robinson v. Ardoin, was brought against Louisiana in 2022 by civil rights …
The Supreme Court ended its 2022-2023 term last week with a crescendo of injustice, issuing rulings that harm racial minorities, gender/sexual minorities, and the working class. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the conservative majority ruled that considering race in order to help minorities is illegal discrimination, but, in 303 Creative v. Elenis, considering …
Note 1: The point of this article is not to fearmonger about crime — overall, violent crime has decreased significantly since the early 1990s and is currently at about the same level as violent crimes in 2016. The point of this article is to document a uniquely American phenomenon: the easy availability of firearms (see note 2) combined with the …
Gun violence in America: Disagreement and misunderstanding result in shootings Read More »
After two weeks of surprisingly good results, including one prohibiting (obvious) racial gerrymandering and another upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act, the Supreme Court returned to its regularly scheduled injustice yesterday. Innocent but in prison The first case, Jones v. Hendrix, revolves around a very technical legal issue that essentially boils down to when people held in federal prison …
Supreme Court rules against innocent people in prison and Navajo water rights Read More »
