Tag Archives: civil rights

The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle reports: A controversial bill titled the “Government Non-discrimination Act” was recalled from the Wyoming House of Representatives by its sponsors Thursday afternoon. The action was in order to “give Wyoming citizens time for more thorough consideration,” the bill’s sponsors said in a statement emailed to media members Thursday afternoon. Supporters of House Bill 135 said it would …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: Legislators won’t be moving quickly to change House Bill 2 this year, and an “outright repeal” doesn’t have enough support, N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger said this week. Berger spoke in detail about the controversial LGBT law in an interview with Tim Boyum of Time Warner Cable News that aired Thursday night. During a …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: Does former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory need protection? Do all current and former public officials? At least one state senator thinks so. After a video was posted on Facebook Friday showing a group of people following McCrory during a trip to Washington, D.C., for inaugural weekend, chanting “Shame!” and calling him a bigot, …

Miranda Blue reports at Right Wing Watch: A dark money group that spent $21 million supporting Donald Trump in the presidential election is now running a television ad portraying Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, as “a civil rights champion.” Sessions has been a lifelong opponent of civil rights. He was rejected for a federal judgeship …

Talking Points Memo reports: Donald Trump has tapped lawyer John Gore, who defended the University of North Carolina system in a legal challenge over the state’s anti-LGBT law, to be the deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Gore is a partner at Jones Day, the Trump campaign’s law firm. Jones Day announced that Gore and …

Twitter wonks noticed this happening moments after Trump was sworn in. Via Esquire: Donald Trump was just sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. Just gonna leave that there for a moment. As part of the presidential transition, Trump’s team assumes control of WhiteHouse.gov. Before today, the “Issues” tab of the website had a section devoted to …

The Texas Observer reports: A Republican lawmaker filed the “Abolition of Abortion in Texas Act” Wednesday, which would ban and criminalize abortions in Texas at any stage and direct state officials to ignore federal law established by Roe v. Wade. House Bill 948, authored by state Representative Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington [PHOTO], is the newest and most straightforward attempt by Texas …

The New York Times reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump will meet on Monday with the eldest son of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to discuss the legacy and observe the holiday of the civil rights icon, Mr. Trump’s spokesman said. The unexpected move comes as tensions escalate between the incoming president and a number of prominent black elected …

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Atlantans responded with an incredulous “how dare you!” Saturday after President-elect Donald Trump kicked off the MLK holiday weekend with a twitter rant saying most of Atlanta is in “horrible shape and falling apart” and describing Georgia’s U.S. Rep. John Lewis — a civil rights icon — as “All talk, talk, talk — no action or …

The Hill report: Human Rights Watch is listing President-elect Donald Trump as a threat to human rights, calling his campaign a “vivid illustration of the politics of intolerance.” “Donald Trump’s election as US president after a campaign fomenting hatred and intolerance, and the rising influence of political parties in Europe that reject universal rights, have put the postwar human rights …

The Arizona Republic reports: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was all about justice, that notion that we are all equal, that we all deserve opportunities. He lived by that Old Testament command from God that we should not only be charitable but work for justice. Social justice, he called it. Just don’t dare talk about such things in Arizona’s …

The International Business Times reports: The confirmation process for Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is “rigged” and should be delayed in order to thoroughly vet Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, a group of civil rights leaders said in a conference call with reporters Friday. Citing reports that Democrats will be allowed to call only four witnesses to testify at next …

From the Bay Area Reporter: California has banned most taxpayer-funded travel to four states that have adopted anti-LGBT laws. In addition to the three Southern states that the state attorney general’s office had identified in November for inclusion on the list – Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee – Kansas was also named to the official list posted online January 1. …

The Associated Press reports: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper took his oath of office minutes after midnight Sunday morning, getting an early start on his duties amid bitter partisan politics in the state but saying he believed there is a way forward. Joined by a small group of family, friends and colleagues, the Democrat was sworn inside the old House …

WOW. From an op-ed published today by the Raleigh News & Observer: In the just released EIP report, North Carolina’s overall electoral integrity score of 58/100 for the 2016 election places us alongside authoritarian states and pseudo-democracies like Cuba, Indonesia and Sierra Leone. If it were a nation state, North Carolina would rank right in the middle of the global …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump transition team instructed the State Department to turn over all information Wednesday about “gender-related staffing, programming, and funding,” setting off alarm bells among those who fear that the new administration is going to purge programs that promote women’s equality along with the people who work on them. Only a week after being embroiled in …

Raleigh’s NBC affiliate reports: The executive committee of the state NAACP will ask the national leaders of the civil rights group for a nationwide economic boycott of North Carolina to protest the actions of the General Assembly, state NAACP President Rev. William Barber said Thursday. “This legislature is trying to raise a new Confederacy in policy,” Barber said at a …

Via joint press release from Lambda Legal and the ACLU: Based on a promise from the General Assembly to fully repeal H.B. 2, the Charlotte City Council repealed their LGBT non-discrimination ordinances earlier this week. However, the Legislature failed to follow through on their promise, despite the deep and widespread opposition and outrage over the discriminatory nature of the law. …

After spending much of the day in recess, the North Carolina House has just gone back into session where at this writing a GOP rep is denouncing HB2 opponents as the “lunatic left” and the “California crowd.” Here are the links for live audio and live video. At this point, nobody appears to be holding their breath that any full …

From the Charlotte Observer: When hockey players bring a tear to someone’s eye, it’s usually after breaking their nose. But there’s apparently a mushy side to these guys that the world has overlooked. Just a week after the Carolina Panthers released a sweet-hearted Christmas video, the Charlotte Checkers have produced one of their own that is both sentimental and poignant …