Civil Rights

Axios: Voter Suppression Bills Underway In 33 States

Axios reports: There are at least 165 proposals under consideration in 33 states so far this year to restrict future voting access by limiting mail-in ballots, implementing new voter ID requirements and slashing registration options. As Trump’s impeachment trial begins over his role in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection that sought to overturn President Biden’s victory — fueled by baseless …

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LIVE VIDEO: Biden Speaks On Racial Equality Policies

CNN reports: President Biden is delivering remarks on his racial equity policy and will sign a series of executive actions focused on nondiscrimination policy, prison reform and public housing. Biden has specifically asked the office, which plays a role in crafting the administration’s annual budget proposals, to evaluate opportunities to allocate funding “more equitably to target groups who have been …

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Biden Signs Sweeping LGBTQ Rights Executive Order

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: The executive order implementing the decision in Bostock v. Clayton County comes nearly six months after the Supreme Court issued the ruling, which found anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, thus illegal in the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The ruling has wide-ranging implications and …

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Biden Signs Executive Orders Reversing Trump’s Actions On Border Wall, Muslim Travel Ban, And Paris Accord

CNN reports: “There’s no time to start like today,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office as he began signing a stack of orders and memoranda. “I’m going to start by keeping the promises I made to the American people.” With the stroke of a pen, Biden has halted funding for the construction of Trump’s border wall, reversed his travel …

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NY Sues NYPD Over Excessive Force At BLM Protests

Spectrum’s NY1 reports: New York State Attorney General Letitia James is suing the New York City Police Department in an effort to install a federal monitor to oversee them. The lawsuit comes after the AG’s office found widespread civil rights abuses by police against Black Lives Matter protesters over the summer. This marks the first time in state history the …

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DOJ Launches Move To Roll Back Minority Rights

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration has embarked on an 11th-hour bid to undo some civil rights protections for minority groups, which could have a ripple effect on women, people with disabilities and L.G.B.T. people, according to a draft document, in a change that would mark one of the most significant shifts in civil rights enforcement in generations. …

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NC Court Strikes Down Law Banning Same-Sex Partners From Getting Domestic Violence Orders Of Protection

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: LGBTQ people in North Carolina can no longer be prevented from getting domestic violence protective orders, the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. North Carolina had been the only state in the country to withhold emergency protections from people seeking protection from abuse by a same-sex partner. That kind of protection is offered to …

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Supreme Court Rejects Attack On LGBTQ Parenting

From my November 30th report: Indiana’s attorney general submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should reverse a federal appeals court’s ruling that allowed both members of same-sex couples in Indiana to be listed as parents on the birth certificates of their children. The petition from Attorney General Curtis Hill follows a January decision by the …

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SCOTUS Rejects Appeal In Win For Trans Students

The Associated Press reports: The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up an appeal from parents in Oregon who want to prevent transgender students from using locker rooms and bathrooms of the gender with which they identify, rather than their sex assigned at birth. The case came from a school district near Salem, Oregon’s capital city. The federal appeals court …

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Alito Blasts LGBTQ Rights In Federalist Society Speech

Politico reports: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito delivered an unusually inflammatory public speech Thursday night, starkly warning about the threats he contends religious believers face from advocates for gay and abortion rights, as well as public officials responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking to a virtual conference of conservative lawyers, the George W. Bush appointee made no direct comment on …

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Questioning By Justices Indicates SCOTUS May Rule In Favor Of Catholic Church In LGBTQ Foster Parents Case

CNBC reports: The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday seemed prepared to rule in favor of a Roman Catholic adoption agency in Philadelphia that argued that it is entitled to discriminate against potential foster parents on the basis of sexual orientation. Arguments in the case, known as Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, No. 19-123, concluded around 12 p.m. ET, as …

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SCOTUS To Hear LGBTQ Foster Care Rights Case Today

Reuters reports: In a case pitting LGBT rights against religious rights, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday is set to hear arguments in a dispute over the city of Philadelphia’s refusal to place children for foster care with a Catholic Church-affiliated agency that excludes same-sex couples from serving as foster parents. It will be the first major case to be …

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NC Cops Pepper-Spray Voters Marching To Polls [VIDEO]

The Daily Beast reports: On the final day of early voting in North Carolina, police in Alamance County pepper-sprayed a group of voters who were marching to the polls, leaving demonstrators injured and vomiting in the streets. At least one journalist was arrested in the chaotic showdown on Saturday in Alamance County, a red county but one that may decide …

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Michigan Moves Closer To Statewide LGBT Rights Law

Detroit’s CBS News affiliate reports: A ballot drive has turned in more than 483,000 signatures for an initiative to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people in Michigan by amending the state’s civil rights law. If election officials determine roughly 340,000 are valid, the bill would be placed before the Republican-led Legislature, where similar legislation has long stalled. If lawmakers did not …

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Trump’s SCOTUS Shortlist Is Full Of Anti-LGBTQ Haters

Via press release from Lambda Legal: Today, the Trump Administration released a new list of dangerous, ultra-conservative ideologues as potential nominees for the highest court in the land. This list is teeming with individuals who have alarming anti-LGBTQ and anti-civil rights records, which should be disqualifying for any judicial nominee, let alone a nominee for the Supreme Court. Notably, the …

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Bidens Meet Privately With Blake Family In Kenosha

CBS News reports: Former Vice President Joe Biden and Jill Biden met on Thursday with the family of Jacob Blake during a trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin, which was roiled by unrest after Blake, who is Black, was shot in the back seven times by a police officer. The Bidens met privately with members of the Blake family in a Milwaukee …

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NYC To Pay Record $5.9M Over Death Of Trans Inmate

The New York Times reports: New York City has reached the largest settlement recorded over an inmate’s death at the Rikers Island jail complex, agreeing to pay $5.9 million to the family of a 27-year-old transgender woman who died there last year while in solitary confinement. Layleen Polanco was found unresponsive in her cell in June 2019 after having an …

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Obama Urges “Peaceful, Strategic, Purposeful” Protests

ABC News reports: Former President Obama on Friday called for “peaceful, sustained” demonstrations for racial justice as the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., has ignited a new round of protests and demands for reform across the nation. The tweet came as thousands of people congregated in Washington, D.C., in a march against police brutality and systemic racism …

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LIVE VIDEO: 57th Annual March On Washington

The Washington Post reports: Thousands of protesters gathered Friday at the Lincoln Memorial to call for criminal justice reform and racial equality while honoring the 57th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” address from the same location. Planning began in June after the funeral of George Floyd. Organizers say they want to highlight the …

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DeSantis Spent $250K To Defend Poll Tax On Felons

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office paid prominent Washington law firm Cooper & Kirk $250,000 to defend the state’s law banning people convicted of felonies from voting before they’ve paid off all court fees, fines and restitution to victims. According to the contract released by the governor’s office Monday, DeSantis general counsel Joe Jacquot inked the deal …

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