Uncategorized

Supreme Court Rules on Major Gerrymandering Cases

The Supreme Court ruled on two major cases regarding gerrymandering on Monday. The decisions, a victory for Republican lawmakers in Texas and North Carolina, allow for the majority of the states’ voting districts to remain in their current design ahead of the 2018 elections.

Politics

Supreme Court Upholds Ohio Voter Suppression Law

In a 5-4 decision last week, the Supreme Court upheld an Ohio law that removes voters from voter rolls after four years of inactivity. This reversed the 6th Circuit Appeals Court’s decision finding that the Ohio policy violated the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, a law that bans removing voters from voter rolls for failing to vote. The decision fell along ideological lines.

Activism

2018 Women’s March–Reflecting on Challenges and Victories

This past weekend, thousands of feminist activists once again took the streets of cities and towns across the country for the Women’s Marches to protest a number of the policies and positions of the Trump administration and Republican controlled Congress including the dismantling of Title IX, the rollback of birth control coverage, the failure to protect Dreamers, and more.

Race

US District Court Strikes Down Texas’s Revised Voter ID Law

United States District Judge Nelva Gonzalez Ramos handed down a decision to strike down Texas’s revised voter ID law (Senate Bill 5) on the basis that it continues to discriminate against African American and Latino voters. Judge Gonzalez Ramos issued a 27 page decision on the 23rd of August stating that the voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act and is unconstitutional.

Uncategorized

North Carolina is Still Trying to Suppress Voting

In the wake of July’s federal appeals court ruling overturning the majority of North Carolina’s 2013 election laws, the state’s 100 local election boards, all comprised of one Democrat and two Republicans, have had to file their own respective election rules with the state, and critics are calling them equally as egregious as the original laws.