Migration Category: Feminist Newswire

Stories from the Feminist News Wire.

Today is the 53rd Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

 August 6, 2018 marks the 53rd anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson signing into law the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965. Politicians and organizations alike are recognizing the milestone on social media, highlighting how the VRA continues to influence American elections and politics today.

Congress passed the VRA to prevent voter suppression efforts at the state and local levels, which primarily prevented African Americans from voting, a right that was granted with the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. After the end of Reconstruction in 1877, white leaders began enacting measures such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses that disenfranchised black voters in much of the country. In the early 1900s, U.S. Supreme Court cases and acts from Congress began striking down voter suppression measures. However, it was not until President Johnson called for comprehensive legislation that Congress passed the VRA in 1965. In the 1970s, Congress passed expansion measures to include U.S. citizens who do not speak English.

Although voter suppression has never ceased to exist, the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder provided more leeway for state voter suppression. The Court essentially nullified Section 5 of the VRA, which required preclearance in voting regulation changes in some notorious states. Since then, as many as 17 states (which have 189 electoral votes) have passed new voter suppression laws, which more than likely played a roll in the 2016 election results. These laws include changes regarding voter identification requirements, early voting cutbacks, and voter registration modifications.

Voter ID laws are put in place supposedly to stop voter fraud, but in reality, they prevent registered voters from actually voting on Election Day. A study in Wisconsin, for example, showed that as many as 23,000 eligible voters in the state were discouraged from casting a ballot in the 2016 presidential election due to the state’s voter ID laws. The study also found that 27.5% of African Americans were discouraged compared to only 8.3% of white registered voters. Similarly, 21.1% of low-income registered voters were deterred by voter ID laws, compared to only 2.7% of high-income registered voters.

Gerrymandering also prevents an individual’s vote from meaningfully counting in our election system. In 2016 in North Carolina, Republicans won 10 of the 13 congressional seats despite only wining 53 percent of the popular vote. And in Pennsylvania, gerrymandering has empowered Republicans to hold 13 of the state’s 18 seats in the House of Representatives, despite the fact that Democrats have almost 800,000 more registered voters than Republicans. This is why voting rights advocates have been working to find discriminatory districts across the country unconstitutional.

This year, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the state’s congressional districts violate the state Constitution by unfairly benefiting the GOP and required they be redrawn. Republican leaders then filed an emergency appeal asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hold that redrawing order, which the Justices then rejected. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has also upheld gerrymandering in other cases. Most recently, the Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs in Wisconsin’s and North Carolina’s redistricting cases did not have grounds to bring a lawsuit. In Texas, the Court ruled that all but one district, Democratically-held state House District 90, could remain in place for the 2018 elections. All three of these decisions favor the GOP.

Other voter suppression methods involve purging voter rolls, meaning that states can remove registered voters who have not voted in a certain number of years. The Supreme Court upheld an Ohio law that removes voters from voter rolls after four years of inactivity. Like other voter suppression measures, voter roll purging targets populations of voters from predominantly poor black neighborhoods in the greatest numbers.

Most states today block voting rights of former felons to some degree. Nationwide, disenfranchisement of former felons blocks about 6 million potential voters, and just in Florida, that number is 1.5 million voters, including 21 percent of all black residents of voting age. Florida ex-felons are permanently blocked from voting unless they apply to the Office of Executive Clemency. Under Governor Rick Scott, just 3,005 voters have had their rights restored. Although some states have begun to change their laws regarding former felons, and even Florida has a ballot measure in November that would automatically restore voting rights, voter suppression of ex-felons remains a seriously harmful measure.

Gerrymandering and other voter suppression tactics could find a haven in Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who was chosen from a list of 25 jurists who were handpicked by the right-wing Federalist Society. In 2015, Kavanaugh upheld a South Carolina discriminatory voter ID law that was originally blocked by the Obama administration because it violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

 

Media Resources: Encyclopedia Britannica 7/30/18; Feminist Newswire 6/25/13; ACLU 2018; Feminist Newswire 10/6/17; Feminist Newswire 2/6/18; Feminist Newswire 6/26/18; Feminist Newswire 6/18/18; New York Times 5/11/18; Slate 4/26/18;

Protesters Arrested In Civil Disobedience Action Against Kavanaugh

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

Seventy four people were arrested in Washington, DC last week for civil disobedience while protesting the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. The activists were led out of the Hart Senate Office Building with their fists in the air as they sang, “Hear the voices of the sons and daughters, protect our freedom now!”

Protests took place in all three Senate office buildings on Wednesday. Dozens of people crammed the hallways, preventing Republican Senators from meeting with Kavanaugh, including Senator John Thune of South Dakota and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley of Iowa. The pre-scheduled meetings were eventually moved to the Capitol Building.

Outside of the Capitol, over 600 people gathered for a large rally to #StopKavanaugh organized by Alliance for Justice, the Center for American Progress, Demand Justice, People for the American Way, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and others. The rally featured Members of Congress and a number of activists, including Ady Barkan, co-director of Be A Hero, who is dying from ALS. Barkan, a fierce advocate for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), famously asked Senator Jeff Flake last year, during the battle to save the ACA, to be a hero and vote to protect the healthcare law from attempts to repeal it, which would have cut off access to care for millions of people, including those with pre-existing conditions (Senator Flake later voted to dismantle the ACA).

The fate of the ACA is in jeopardy once again, and the next Justice on the Supreme Court may provide the deciding vote on whether millions of people will able to access healthcare.  Earlier this year, Texas and 19 other states filed a lawsuit in federal court to repeal the healthcare law. The case is making its way through the federal courts. and the Trump Administration, which filed a brief in the case, has taken the position that the ACA is unconstitutional and should be overturned. President Trump has also pledged to only appoint judges that would overturn both the ACA and Roe v. Wade.

At the rally, Members of Congress highlighted what’s at stake with Trump’s Supreme Court nomination. “This is a moral issue affecting America,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “We will not rest until Brett Kavanaugh is defeated and the American people win.”

If Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed as the next Supreme Court Justice, he would tip the balance of the Court, threatening rights for women, immigrants, workers, the environment, and our democracy for generations to come. Kavanaugh was chosen from a list of 25 jurists who were handpicked by the right wing Federalist Society. As an extreme conservative, Kavanaugh would rank nearly the same as Justice Clarence Thomas on the ideological spectrum.

Media Resources: People for the American Way 8/2/18; Truthdig 08/01/18; Five Thirty Eight 08/01/18; Be A Hero Campaign; The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Feminist Newswire 7/11/18; Washington Post 6/7/18

6 Year Old Sexually Abused in Immigration Detention Told to Stay Away from Assailant

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

After a 6-year-old girl was sexually abused in an immigrant detainment center in Arizona, she was forced to sign a document saying it was her responsibility to stay away from her abuser. The girl was residing in the detention facility after being forcibly separated from her parents at the southern border. Her abuser is an older child staying in the same center, Casa Glendale.

The document states that it is her responsibility to follow a “safety plan” which includes reporting abuse as “Good touch” or “Bad touch.” Her “signature” is just her first initial with “tender age” in parentheticals.

In June, the same abuser hit and sexually abused the girl again.

The girl has been identified as D.L. and had been separated from her mother under Attorney General Jeff Session’s family separation policy.

“I felt really horrible. I couldn’t do anything for her, because we were separated,” D.L’s mother said using a translator in an interview with The Nation. “It was a nightmare. When my husband told me what happened, I felt helpless. She was so little, she was probably so scared, probably afraid to say anything to anyone. It was a total nightmare for me.”

D.L. and her mother sought asylum at the border in May after fleeing gang violence in Guatamala. They came to an official checkpoint in El Paso, Texas with their asylum paperwork.

The detention center is run by Southwest Key, a nonprofit that is contracted by the government to hold minors separated from their parents at the border. They have 26 facilities across the U.S.

D.L. has since been reunited with her parents. Her mother told The Nation that D.L. ““behaved like she was still in detention. She wouldn’t touch me, hug me, or kiss me . . . She didn’t know I was her mom. She thought I was another social worker.”

The policy of separating families at the border resulted from the announcement of Trumps “zero-tolerance” border policy in April, which aimed to prosecute as many border-crossers as possible – even those who turned themselves over to Border Patrol seeking asylum. Under this policy, parents were immediately sent into criminal custody, while children were classified as “unaccompanied alien children.” This classification used to only apply to minors crossing the border without an adult relative. It allowed Border Patrol to forcefully separate the children from their parents.

Trump signed an executive order to end the family separation policy in June, but it did nothing to reunite the over 2000 detained children with their parents. Despite being forced by a court order to reunite every separated child, the administration has so far only reunited two-thirds of families by the court’s deadline. About 650 children are still locked away without their parents.

 

Media Resources: Fortune 7/28/18; The Nation 7/27/18; Feminist Newswire 6/20/18

Democrats Plan to Introduce Free Community College Initiative

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House Democrats are planning on introducing a bill to provide students with two years of tuition-free community college. Both parties have introduced their own proposals to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, which controls a large amount of the federal spending for higher education.

The Aim Higher Act would create a partnership between states and the federal government to give every student the opportunity to earn their associate’s degree debt free. States would receive grants from the federal government if they agree to invest in state schools and eliminate tuition for students seeking associate’s degrees at public, two-year colleges.

The Aim Higher Act would simplify the FAFSA application and automatically give students in the lowest income bracket a full Pell Grant, which would be equal to over $6500 each year.

The bill also aims to help increase the graduation rate of students who may struggle to complete college, like parents or veterans.

Their plan is unlikely to receive bipartisan support and may face criticism from within the moderate wing of the party. However, supporting the bill may be a litmus test for potential 2020 candidates.

Democrats are facing pressure to support tuition-free college as the college debt crisis grows. Over $1.3 trillion is owed in student loans in the United States.

“[The Aim Higher Act] provides immediate and long-term relief to students and parents struggling with the cost of college, it puts a greater focus on helping students graduate on time with a quality degree that leads to a rewarding career, and it cracks down on predatory for-profit colleges that peddle expensive, low-quality degrees at the expense of students and taxpayers,” said Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia.

House Republicans are introducing their own reauthorization bill to the Higher Education Act. Their PROSPER Act could cut $15 billion from student aid and includes policies that favor private over public educational institutions.

The PROSPER Act ignores DACA recipients, saying nothing about whether or not they are eligible for financial aid. It would also repeal the TEACH grant which helps aspiring teachers fund their education.

Higher Education Act was last reauthorized in 2008.

The need for accessibility to affordable education is increasingly relevant. Not only do full-time workers with bachelor’s degrees earn 60 percent more than workers with high school diplomas alone, 68 percent of managerial job postings and 60 percent of computer and mathematical job listings require them. With public and private institution costs skyrocketing in just fifteen years, 40 million Americans now owe more than $1.3 trillion dollars in student loans, each with an average outstanding balance of $29,000 and a repayment period extending some 13.4 years, deepening economic inequality and hindering social mobility.

 

 

Media Resources: The Hill 7/24/18; Hechinger Report 7/27/18; ABC News 7/24/18, 7/24/18

Activists Rally Against Kavanaugh’s Nomination

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People across the country are rallying to oppose the nomination of Brett Kavanagh to the Supreme Court, fearful that his confirmation could be detrimental to the future of the Affordable Care Act, abortion rights, workers’ rights, and more.

On July 9, immediately after Trump chose the right-wing political operative to replace the Supreme Court’s retiring swing-vote Justice Anthony Kennedy, hundreds gathered at the Supreme Court in protest, with Senators like Cory Booker urging the crowd to action.

Since then, progressives have rallied from Capitol Hill to district offices. Even in states like Iowa and Alabama, progressives have gathered outside their Senators district offices to urge them to vote no. Democratic Senators up for reelection in red states – Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Donnelly and Joe Manchin – are facing mounting pressure by progressives to publicly speak out against Kavanaugh.

Meanwhile, vulnerable Republican Senators from blue states may risk losing reelection by voting for Kavanaugh. Senator Dean Heller (R-Nevada) backed Trump’s Supreme Court nominee before he even announced it would be Kavanaugh. His opponent Jacky Rosen told Politico she “couldn’t see [herself] voting yes” on Kavanaugh. Hillary Clinton won Nevada in 2016.

NARAL Pro-Choice America is organizing a protest at the end of August to influence these key decision makers during the Congressional recess. “We’re working with 30 different partners to around the country to do an August 26 50-state day of action, specifically directed at senators who will be home at the time to listen to their constituents, asking them to vote no on Kavanaugh,” said NARAL President Ilyse Hogue.

According to a Quinnipiac poll, more Americans want Kavanaugh blocked than confirmed.

Two weeks ago the House Pro-Choice Caucus held a press conference to voice concern over the threat that Judge Kavanaugh poses for reproductive rights. With Kavanaugh on the Court, conservatives will have the majority they need to try to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion across the country.

Kavanaugh was selected from a list of 25 jurists who were handpicked by the Federalist Society, an organization that mentors young conservative lawyers and grooms the next generation of judicial leaders to be sympathetic to their values, including ending legal abortion.

Justice Kennedy officially begins his retirement this week, and confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh are expected to in September.

 

Media Resources: PBS 7/27/18; Vox 7/29/18; Slate 7/26/18; Politico 7/25/18; Quinnipiac 7/25/18; Feminist Newswire 7/17/18

GOP Works to Roll Back the Endangered Species Act

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Over 20 actions items aimed at rolling back portions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have been proposed or voted on by Congress over the past two weeks.

These proposals are an attempt by the Trump Administration and Republican controlled Congress to undermine the act, which has protected wildlife and prevented industry from destroying protected habitats for 45 years.

One of the overhaul’s main components is an unprecedented provision forcing policymakers to consider the economic effects of protecting animals before placing them on the endangered species list. This would also make it easier to remove animals currently on the list.

“The last few weeks have seen the most coordinated set of attacks on the Endangered Species Act I’ve faced since I got to Washington,” said Representative Raúl Grijalva from Arizona.

Currently, species on the endangered species list are defined by their risk to become endangered in the “foreseeable future.” The administration plans to change the definition of “foreseeable future” to only include cases where extinction is probably. They will also eliminate rules that treat threatened species to the same protections as endangered species.

These proposals will also make it more difficult to classify habitats being threatened by climate change.

In 1973, The Endangered Species Act passed the House of Representatives with a 355-4 vote and was signed by President Nixon in 1973. It has been largely successful, as it was fundamental to the repopulation of the American alligator, the gray whale and the bald eagle.

Only about 1 in 10 Americans oppose the ESA. Pushes to weaken the ESA come mainly from industrial and agricultural interest groups. Republican lawmakers resent the restrictions on logging, mining and drilling in protected habitats that could help corporate interests profit.

“This proposal turns the extinction-prevention tool of the Endangered Species Act into a rubber stamp for powerful corporate interests,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement.

Between 1990 and 2010, only about five proposals to amend or weaken the ESA were introduced each year. In the past two years, there have been about 150.

Congress’ actions on the ESA follow a wave of anti-environment action since Trump’s election. During Trump’s first month in office, the administration ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) not to speak to the press and not to post on social media outlets or blogs. They also froze federal grant spending at these same agencies, which many took as a sign that climate change research would soon halt.

Trump’s first 100 days also included an executive action to advance the constructions of the long embattled Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, fulfilling a campaign promise that left many environmental and indigenous rights activists concerned for the future.

 

Media Resources: The Verge 7/19/18; PBS 7/21/18;  Feminist Newswire 1/26/17

Anti-Abortion Extremists Flood Indianapolis

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This week, members of the extremist anti-abortion group Operation Save America stormed Indianapolis in an attempt to harass doctors, staff and patients of three local reproductive health clinics. OSA’s leader has made it clear that he believes women should be subject to criminal prosecution—even the death penalty—for accessing an abortion.

OSA lined the sidewalks outside of clinics to shame and manipulate patients, marched through downtown spouting lies, and live-streamed their harassment campaign, featuring interviews with extremists—one of whom was convicted of burning down a clinic.

Members of the OSA even stood outside of doctors’ houses and sent out hundreds of mailers with the name and addresses of two local doctors, claiming that they murder children by providing abortion care. These mailers were distributed in the doctors’ two neighborhoods without return addresses.

The Feminist Majority Foundation’s National Clinic Access team was on the ground in Indianapolis helping to protect abortion clinics, their staff, and patients during OSA’s week long siege.

“While this week has been challenging, we are fortified and invigorated by the power of our movement,” said Shivani Desai, a National Campus Organizer with the Feminist Majority Foundation. “Our grassroots allies in Indianapolis—along with advocates and friends from all over the Midwest—organized and showed up in defiance, ready to help make sure that clinics stay open. And every day—no matter the obstacle—abortion providers and clinic staff opened their doors, offering fiercely empathetic care to patients.”

Each year, anti-abortion extremists target a city and harass patients and providers in an attempt to shut down its clinics. Last year, OSA attempted to blockade the only abortion clinic in Kentucky. A temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction prohibited the group from physically interfering with people seeking or providing reproductive health care.

The Trump Administration’s hostile view on abortion care has emboldened anti-abortion extremists since Trump’s elections. Between 2016 and 2017, the number of death threats and threats of harm for abortion care providers nearly doubled. The number of clinic blockades also doubled, according to the National Abortion Federation.

The Feminist Majority Foundation’s 2016 National Clinic Violence Survey recently found that 91.1 percent of clinics experience some type of anti-abortion activity, such as protesting, with 63.2 percent of providers experiencing activity at least once a week, and a quarter of clinics experiencing it every day. Blocking access to a clinic is considered one of the most severe types of threats and violence experienced by clinics. The number of clinics who report these experiences has skyrocketed from 19.7 percent in 2014 to 34.2 percent in 2016. Since 1993, 10 abortion providers have been murdered, and 26 murder attempts have been made.

Recently, a Planned Parenthood in Fort Wayne, Indiana was forced to close due to persistent harassment, even though that clinic did not provide abortion care. That particular clinic withstood the attacks of local anti-abortion group for years, which targeted Planned Parenthood employees by plastering posters and distributing mailers much like those used by the OSA in Indianapolis. Eventually, it became difficult for the health center to hire staff and recruit providers.

Donate to the Feminist Majority Foundation’s National Clinic Access Project.

Media Resources: Indystar 7/19/19; Feminist Newswire 7/13/18, 7/20/17

Remembering the Legacy of Seneca Falls

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On this day 170 years ago, a group of women gathered in Seneca Falls for the first women’s rights convention in the United States.  The Convention, which propelled the long fight to pass the 19th Amendment, revealed the Declaration of Sentiments, a list of women’s grievances modeled after the Declaration of Independence. In the years following the convention, women fought, across the country, for the right to vote.

White women dominated the Seneca Falls Convention and the following movement, many of whom ignored the oppression and disenfranchisement faced by black women. After the 15th Amendment was ratified granting the vote to black men, the racial divide was only further entrenched. In one speech, Anna Howard Shaw, the President of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, stated that “you have put the ballot in the hands of your black men, thus making them political superiors of white women. Never before in the history of the world have men made former slaves the political masters of their former mistresses!”

Her statement mirrors many of the sentiments from white feminist leaders of the time. Black feminists, like Soujourner Truth, had to fight even harder to get the right to vote because they were excluded from the era’s mainstream media. In 1867, Truth argued that “There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before.”

The 19th amendment did not protect all women in the United States from disenfranchisement, as discriminatory poll taxes, literacy tests and other degrading practices, coupled with terroristic intimidation by white supremacists, restricted black women from equal access to voting for another 45 years. Additionally, Native American women, as well as Asian American women, were often denied their right to citizenship in the courts and state law, and therefore were also barred from voting in many elections.

Voter disenfranchisement still exists today. At the time of the 2016 election, 31 states had voter ID laws on the books, which were estimated to disenfranchise a potential 21 million Americans who did not have access to any acceptable government-issued photo ID. That is 11 percent of US citizens. The majority of these people are low-income, people of color, and the elderly, who are hindered for a number of reasons, including lacking the necessary funds needed to obtain the documents required to secure an ID.

While some states have passed laws aimed at suppressing voter participation, other states have passed automatic voter registration bills. Alaska, California, Oregon, Colorado, Georgia, West Virginia, Connecticut, Vermont, the District of Columbia and Illinois have all implemented an automatic voter registration system, and twenty other states have introduced legislation to implement a similar process.

Today, women hold the voting capability to decide national elections, especially women of color, who are the fastest growing voter block in the country. 63.3 percent of registered female voters turned out in the November 2016 election as opposed to 59.3 percent of registered male voters. Women tend to vote differently than men because of their respective life experiences, a phenomenon that has been termed “the gender gap.” Far from voting the same as their husbands, women frequently take more seriously into consideration a number of issues including care giving responsibilities, the pay gap, and domestic violence and sexual assault.

Unfortunately the 19th amendment is still the only explicitly guaranteed constitutional protections women have. This narrow view of women’s protections under the Constitution have left many women’s right advocates concerned that Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court would be complicit in eventually overturning Roe v Wade.

That’s why the fight to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, a federal Constitutional amendment that would prohibit sex discrimination and guarantee equal rights for women and girls, has picked up steam recently. In May, Illinois became the 37th state to ratify the ERA. If one more state ratifies the amendment, a fight to add the amendment to the Constitution will begin.

The ERA is far from symbolic; it would help women in cases of discrimination in education, employment, wages, insurance benefits, scholarships, military service, social security, violence against women, and so much more. Without the passage of the ERA, women have been forced to try to gain equality law by law. If the ERA was ratified by 38 states and became the law of the land, there would be a Constitutional provision against the Supreme Court, Congress or state legislatures gutting equality on the basis of sex.

The Library of Congress, Wesleyan University, Boston University School of Theology Anna Howard Shaw Center, Teen Vogue 08/18/2017, Society for the Study of American Women Writers, Feminist Newswire 11/03/2016, Feminist Newswire 11/04/2016, Feminist Newswire 06/05/2017, Pew Research Center 05/12/2017, Feminist Newswire 07/17/2018, Feminist Newswire 03/20/2017, The New York Times 05/31/2018

New Hampshire Passes Voter Suppression Law

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

Last week, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu signed a law that would prevent most out-of-state students from voting in the state.

The law implements residency requirements on college students who want to vote in New Hampshire. If out-of-state students wish to vote, they must declare residency in New Hampshire and obtain a New Hampshire driver’s license and vehicle registration within 60 days.

Out-of-state students are not the only citizens affected. The law also disenfranchises transient voters like military personnel, medical residents and visiting professors, among others. These citizens must now choose between voting via absentee ballots in their home states or declaring residency in New Hampshire.

The governor signed the bill into law one day after the New Hampshire Supreme Court found the bill constitutional. Gov. Sununu signed the law discreetly, without press, although student protesters waited outside his door.

Three of five justices on the New Hampshire Supreme Court said the bill did not violate the state Constitution, as the state has a compelling interest in assuring that people voting in New Hampshire elections are “bona fide residents.” The court ruled that the state constitution does not require students to have special voting status, and the legislature may ask transient voters to prove their commitment to the state by declaring residency.

“Gov. Sununu broke his word by signing this shameful attempt at partisan voter suppression into law, which is a giant step backward for our state and has the potential to disenfranchise thousands of Granite Staters,” New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan said.

Gov. Sununu had previously promised not to vote for any bills that would suppress the vote, going so far as to tell an activist, “I will never support anything that suppresses the student vote. End of story.”

New Hampshire’s law follows a Supreme Court decision upholding an Ohio voter suppression law that purged voters from its voter rolls after four years of inactivity. Populations of voters from predominantly poor black neighborhoods were purged from Ohio’s voter rolls in the greatest numbers. In that case, the conservative majority of Justices ignored arguments about the entrenched history of voter suppression among low-income and minority voters.

 

Media Resources: Governing 7/18/18; Slate 7/16/18; Feminist Newswire 6/18/18

Pro-Choice Caucus Rejects Kavanaugh, Fights to Save Roe

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This morning, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi held a press conference with several members of Pro-Choice House Caucus concerning the threats Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court poses for reproductive rights. Feminist Majority joined several reproductive rights organizations to unite with members against Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Members of Congress spoke about the need to reject Kavanaugh in order to protect Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion across the country. If Kavanaugh is confirmed and Roe is overturned, abortion could be criminalized in half the states.

The outcome of criminalized abortion will vary by state. Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers in Ohio introduced HB 565, a bill that aimed to ban abortion in all cases, without exceptions for rape, incest or danger to a woman’s life. The bill would create an “unborn human” category under their homicide laws. This means women seeking abortions could be charged with homicide and face lifetime prison sentences or even the death penalty. If passed, doctors providing abortion care would also be charged with murder. The bill is currently co-sponsored by 16 Republicans in the Ohio legislature. Fourteen of the sponsors are men.

Today if the law were to pass, it would likely not withstand Constitutional scrutiny due to precedent set during Roe v. Wade. However, with Kavanaugh on the Court, a challenge to bills like this could give the Court an opportunity to overturn Roe once and for all.

Kavanaugh was selected from a list of 25 jurists who were handpicked by the Federalist Society, an organization that mentors young conservative lawyers and grooms the next generation of judicial leaders to be sympathetic to their values, including ending legal abortion.

Kavanaugh’s nomination means that he passed President Trump’s litmus test of being a Justice who would overturn Roe v. Wade, criminalizing abortion in over half the country. In the recent case of Garza v. Hargan, Kavanaugh wanted to make it impossible for a 17-year-old pregnant migrant to access an abortion. Even though she had already jumped through all the state-required hoops, Kavanaugh would have forced her to wait weeks longer for a resolution, which would have pushed her into the second trimester.

A massive progressive movement has launched to demand that Senators don’t vote on any Supreme Court nominee until after the November elections, a standard that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell enforced in 2016 as he held up President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland following the death of Justice Scalia.

 

Media Resources: NPR 3/20/18; Feminist Newswire 7/11/18; Cincinnati 3/19/18

350 Afghan Women Certified by USAID

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The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Women’s Leadership Development program, Promote, awarded over 350 Afghan women certificates of accomplishment last week. By gaining these certificates, women are now more likely to be recognized internationally, and they will hopefully have better access to both the public and private sector employment.

The Women’s Leadership Development Program is one component of USAID’s ambitious Promote program, the largest women’s empowerment program in the world. Women undergo training and then aim to hold jobs in the government and in private institutions.

USAID announced Promote in the fall of 2014. Since then, 1,200 women have graduated; however, only 335 of them have been hired, a sign of how gender inequality can lead to a lack of opportunity for women in decision-making positions.

A five-year program, Promote will invest up to $416 million into the education, training, and promotion of Afghan women in civil society, government, and business. The program is geared to Afghan women between the ages of 18 and 30 who have had secondary education, and focuses on four areas: leadership training; increasing representation of women in decision-making roles within the government; women’s inclusion in the workplace, particularly in technology, finance, and administration; and strengthening the capacity of women’s rights groups and networks.

In budget proposals, President Trump has recommended cutting the State Department budget by nearly a third, eliminating funds to certain UN initiatives, and reducing funds to USAID humanitarian and development aid.

Media Resources: USAID 11/9/16; Tolo 7/10/18

Indiana Clinic Forced to Close After Anti-Abortion Harassment

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The Fort Wayne, Indiana Planned Parenthood clinic is closing because of harassment from anti-reproductive rights activists.

Even though the clinic does not provide abortion care, protesters regularly targeted the clinic with protests and harassed local businesses in the area in an attempt to create animosity with the clinic. Planned Parenthood withstood the attacks of local anti-abortion groups, which plastered posters around the neighborhood and distributed mailers with nurses and doctors photos and home addresses on them. After years of targeted harassment and intimidation, it became difficult for the health center to hire staff and recruit providers.

Planned Parenthood withstood the attacks until various violent threats were mailed to the clinic by the Allen County Right to Life group. Following the closure, Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky CEO Christie Gillespie stated that they will “be back, stronger than ever before. Because our supporters know that we provide life-saving, high-quality health care to the thousands of Hoosiers in the Fort Wayne community. No matter what.”

The closest alternative Planned Parenthood locations to Fort Wayne are over 70 miles away, a two hour drive for women who need its services.

The Fort Wayne clinic’s closing follows a long period of harassment and violence towards reproductive health clinics. According to the Feminist Majority Foundation’s (FMF) 2016 National Clinic Violence Survey, the overwhelming majority of clinics (91.1 percent) experienced some type of anti-abortion activity—such as protesting—in the first half of 2016, with 63.2 percent of providers experiencing activity at least once a week, and a quarter of clinics experiencing it every day.

The 2016 National Clinic Violence Survey also found that the number of clinics experiencing the most severe threats and violence has skyrocketed since 2014, from 19.7 percent to 34.2 percent. Severe violence and threats include death threats, stalking, and blocking access to clinics. Half of clinics in the United States (49.5) experienced at least one incident of severe violence and/or severe harassment, such as break-ins or vandalism.

The protestors at clinics like the one in Fort Wayne utilize extreme tactics that intimidate patients, staff and doctors in front of the clinics. These may appear to be ordinary protesters, but many are trained operatives engaged in a systematic campaign to shut down access to women’s healthcare.

This past fall, a federal judge struck down provisions of an Indiana law that banned abortions in cases of severe genetic abnormalities. The same law required all fetuses to be cremated or buried. The judge stated that the provisions infringed on patient’s due process rights and that ere is no legal basis to have such strict restrictions on disposal of a fetus.

Rewire 07/09/18, Feminist Majority, Chicago Tribune 07/09/18, News Sentinel 07/09/18

Victory in the Fight to End Virginity Testing in Afghanistan

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

A major breakthrough was secured for Afghan women last week following a new policy that aims to prohibit virgin testing across health care facilities.

While virginity testing was banned in 2016, many law enforcement and healthcare officials continue to engage in examinations and incarceration of women and girls accused of not having intact hymens. The new policy will increase funding to humanitarian aid groups in Afghanistan and aim to install zero-tolerance measures in all healthcare facilities, thereby challenging the culture surrounding virginity tests.

“It’s been a very long struggle, but we see this as a major breakthrough because public health policy in Afghanistan is strong and respected both in government and Taliban areas,” said Farah Javid, director of the humanitarian organization Marie Stopes International. “We hope this means that, when the police or a family bring in a woman or girl and demand that they perform a virginity test, it will no longer be a procedure that is conducted by health professionals.”

The breakthrough comes after years of activism from Human Rights campaigners, including the World Health Organization, who have condemned the exam as “degrading, discriminatory and unscientific.”

However, the ramifications of virginity tests remain widespread. Administered to girls as young as 12, a failed test result comes with heavy penalties of 3-18 months in prison. Charged with ‘moral crimes’- a category 50% of all incarcerated Afghan women are currently imprisoned for- the social stigma associated with testing still persists, leading to increased risks of abuse, poverty and family abandonment.

At this time, investigating officials have only limited estimates of ‘the number of women and girls who are being killed or harmed’ as a result of exams, with it being even more difficult to identify those currently in prison for such offenses. This new victory is therefore a crucial step in paving the way towards a safer world for Afghan women.

President Ashraf Ghani was elected in 2014 on a pro-women’s rights campaign, and has since elevated women in almost all senior levels of government.

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 6/27/18; The Guardian 7/5/18; Global Citizen 7/5/18; Human Rights Watch 5/25/16

Brett Kavanaugh Nominated to the Supreme Court

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

On Monday night, President Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Kennedy on the United States Supreme Court. An extreme conservative, Kavanaugh would rank nearly the same as Justice Clarence Thomas on the ideological spectrum. Justice Kennedy announced two weeks ago that he will be retiring from the Supreme Court, allowing President Trump to have a second appointment.

Brett Kavanaugh was picked from a list of 25 jurists who were handpicked by the Federalist Society, an organization that mentors young conservative lawyers and grooms the next generation of judicial leaders to be sympathetic to their values, from corporate interests to ending legal abortion.

Kavanaugh spent the formative years of his career as a right-wing operative. In fact, after serving in President George W. Bush’s White House he was considered such a partisan that it took 3 years for his nomination to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to be approved by the Senate.

In 2009, Kavanaugh argued that a president should not be subject to a criminal investigation. This point makes him unique among the candidates Trump could have chosen, and worries those who want the investigation into Russian interference in the American democracy to move forward unhindered. As the Mueller investigation, as well as the New York state investigation, closes in around him, the Supreme Court will be required to weigh in on a number of important, never-before answered constitutional questions regarding the president’s culpability: Can the President fire the special counsel? Can a sitting U.S. President be called to testify in a criminal case? Does the President have the legal authority to pardon himself?

Kavanaugh’s nomination means that he passed President Trump’s litmus test of being a Justice who would overturn Roe v. Wade, criminalizing abortion in over half the country. In the recent case of Garza v. Hargan, Kavanaugh wanted to make it impossible for a 17-year-old pregnant migrant to access an abortion. Even though she had already jumped through all the state-required hoops, Kavanaugh would have forced her to wait weeks longer for a resolution, which would have pushed her into the second trimester. In another dissent, Kavanaugh argued that employers, especially religiously affiliated ones, have the right to deny birth control insurance coverage to their employees.

A massive progressive movement has launched to demand that Senators don’t vote on any Supreme Court nominee until after the November elections, a standard that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell enforced in 2016 as he held up President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland following the death of Justice Scalia.

But Democrats have begun to shift the fight to blocking Kavanaugh’s nomination, assuming that they will not be able to stop a vote. That will require that all Democratic Senators and one Republican Senator oppose his confirmation. Advocates are focusing their efforts on five Senators: Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). Additionally, because of Kavanaugh’s record on government surveillance, some organizations are targeting Rand Paul (R-KY).

In the early days of the Trump presidency, Justice Neil Gorsuch’s nomination was forced through with only 55 votes after Senate Republicans abandoned 200 years of tradition and employed the “nuclear option,” changing the rule requiring a 60-vote threshold for cloture.

The 60 vote threshold was put in place to ensure bi-partisan cooperation when it came to confirming a lifetime appointment to the highest Court in the land. Observers of the Senate and the Court now feel that without a 60-vote threshold, the Court will become even more polarized and politicized.

Media Resources:  538 07/09/18, Feminist Newswire 06/07/2017, 7/6/18; SFGate 07/10/18, The Hill 07/09/18, Reuters 07/03/18; Feminist Majority 7/10/18

Thousands March for Humane Immigration Policy

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

On Saturday, June 30, over 30,000 people gathered in Lafayette Square across from the White House to protest Trump’s policy of family separation and indefinite detention at the southern border. Hundreds of thousands of people marched nationwide in sister marches in over 700 different cities.

Protesters marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, past the White House, demanding that Trump reunite the families he separated. They then marched around the Justice Department, leaving signs in front of the building.

Feminist Majority attended the protest and was led by President Eleanor Smeal.

Protesters wore white as a symbol of unity.

High profile activists like America Ferrera, Alicia Keys and Lin-Manuel Miranda spoke at the rally.

“I am here not only as a brand new mother, as the proud child of Honduran immigrants and an American who sees it as her duty to be here defending justice. I am here as a human being with a beating heart, who can feel pain, who understands compassion and who can easily imagine what it must feel like to struggle the way families are struggling right now,” Ferrera said. “It is easy to imagine that I would hope that if it was my family being torn apart, if it was my brother being arbitrarily criminalized, if it was my sister who was being banned, that someone would stand up for me and my family.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda led the crowd in singing “Dear Theodosia” from his hit musical Hamilton.

“We’re here because there’s parents right now who can’t sing lullabies to their kids,” Lin-Manuel Miranda said. “We’re not going to stop until they can sing to their kids again.”

In June Attorney General Jeff Sessions also reversed asylum protections for immigrants fleeing domestic or gang violence, and implemented the Zero-Tolerance immigration policy, which resulted in the separation of thousands of children from their parents at the border. The policy was designed to deter immigrants from coming to the United States. After public outrage, Trump ended the family separation policy, but allowed these families to be detained at the border indefinitely.

Last week, the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction halting Trump’s system of arbitrary detention for asylum seekers.

 

Justice Kennedy’s Retirement Leaves Court’s Future Uncertain

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

Justice Kennedy announced last Wednesday that he will be retiring from the United States Supreme Court. His retirement will allow President Trump to have a second Supreme Court appointment.

Justice Kennedy was nominated by President Reagan to the Supreme Court in late 1987 and unanimously confirmed the following February. Kennedy was not a consistently conservative Justice–he was the deciding swing vote on many important cases including Planned Parenthood v. Casey—which re-affirmed abortion rights–and Obergefell v. Hodges—which legalized same-sex marriage across the country.

However, despite his occasional swing votes, Kennedy was not a consistent moderate. According to 538, 56.9% of the time, Kennedy voted conservative. In close rulings, Kennedy voted conservatively 71.3% of the time. In fact, just this term he was the deciding vote in favor of upholding Trump’s Muslim Ban, gutting public sector unions, letting fake anti-abortion clinics lie to patients, and upholding a heavily gerrymandered congressional map in Texas.

But Kennedy’s retirement has worried liberals, as President Trump has promised that whoever he nominates will help to overturn Roe v. Wade, which would criminalize abortion in over half the states.

Trump intends to pick a nominee from a list of 25 potential-jurists who were handpicked by the Federalist Society, an organization that mentors young conservative lawyers and grooms the next generation of judicial leaders to be sympathetic to their values, from corporate interests to ending legal abortion. Feminists warn that any of the judges on the list would be devastating for women.

A massive progressive  movement has launched to demand that Senators don’t vote on any Supreme Court nominee until after the November elections, a standard that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell enforced in 2016 as he held up President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland.

That seat was eventually filled by now Justice Neil Gorsuch, whose nomination was forced through with only 55 votes after Senate Republicans abandoned 200 years of tradition and employed the “nuclear option,” changing the rule requiring a 60-vote threshold for cloture.

The 60 vote threshold was put in place to ensure bi-partisan cooperation when it came to confirming a lifetime appointment to the highest Court in the land. Observers of the Senate and the Court now feel that without a 60-vote threshold, the Court will become even more polarized and politicized.

 

Media Resources: Vox 06/27/2018, 538 07/03/2018, The Washington Post 07/02/2018, Vox 06/05/2018, Reuters 07/03/2018, Vox 07/05/2018, Politico 07/04/2018, The Washington Post 06/27/2018

Scott Pruitt Resigns from EPA

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned yesterday following a long battle with ethics violations allegations. Pruitt, a self-proclaimed “leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda,” is an avid climate change denier, fossil fuel supporter and collaborator with oil and gas companies.

Pruitt’s term was riddled with multiple ethics violations such as using his position to try and set up a Chick-fil-A franchise for his wife and allegedly using taxpayer funds to travel privately. Most recently, it was reported that Pruitt has enlisted his aides to find luxury pillows and arrange a family trip to California. The House Oversight Committee is currently investigating the allegations against Pruitt.

This week it was revealed that Pruitt was maintaining a secret calendar that chronicled his ethically-questionable meetings with special interests. Additionally, Pruitt required government employees to alter or all together delete records of controversial correspondence on his public calendar, a potential violation of federal law.

Prior to his confirmation many EPA employees, including lawyers, policy advocates and scientists, launched a nationwide effort asking the Senate to oppose his confirmation.

Pruitt denies that he resigned due to these allegations; instead stating that he is resigning because of “unrelenting attacks” on himself and his family. Pruitt’s deputy, Andrew Wheeler, will serve as acting administrator until Trump finds a replacement.  Wheeler is a former coal industry lobbyist and previously served as chief of staff to Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, a notoriously outspoken climate change denier.

Evidence on global climate change as a result of human activity is overwhelming and has garnered wide-spread scientific consensus among leading scientific societies. According to NASA, sea level rise, global temperature rise, the warming of our oceans, shrinking ice sheets, glacial retreat, declining Arctic sea ice, ocean acidification, and declining snow cover are just a few among the many outcomes and signs indicating rapid environmental deterioration as a consequence of climate change.

Climate change has a profound effect on the female population around the globe. In developing nations, women account for over 50 percent of the agricultural workforce and the effects of climate change would have a detrimental impact on their livelihoods.

 

Media Resources: The Hill 7/3/18; NBC 7/5/18; CNBC 02/16/2017, The Hill 06/06/2018, The Washington Post, The Washington Post 06/04/2018, The Hill 05/01/2018, CNN 07/05/2018, CNN 07/05/2018; Feminist Newswire 2/17/17

Judge Temporarily Blocks Arbitrary Detention of Asylum Seekers

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

On Monday, the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction halting Trump’s system of arbitrary detention for asylum seekers. The judge ruled that according to a 2009 directive, asylum seekers must be considered for release.

The 2009 directive guarantees that asylum seekers who have shown “credible fear” in an interview should be released from federal detention as they await their trial. In accordance with this directive, Judge James Boasberg ordered the government to interview detained asylum seekers to ensure they are not dangerous to the community before releasing them.

The lawsuit was brought forth by several progressive organizations following a group of asylum seekers being unlawfully detained after passing their credible fear interview and proving they were not threats to public safety.

“This ruling means the Trump administration cannot use indefinite detention as a weapon to punish and deter asylum seekers,” said Michael Tan, a lawyer at the ACLU.

The Trump Administration refers to the parole of asylum seekers while they wait for court hearings as “catch and release” policies. Until Trump took office, 9 out of 10 asylum seekers had been granted parole. Now, that number is about zero.

In five ICE field offices, asylum seekers are being detained indefinitely. These offices are in Detroit, El Paso, Los Angeles, Newark and Philadelphia. In just these districts, over 1000 asylum seekers have been denied parole.

This decision adds depth to the immigration debate sparked after the announcement of Trump’s “zero-tolerance” border policy, a policy that resulted in the separation of thousands of children from their parents at the border. The policy was designed to deter immigrants from coming to the United States.

After public outrage, Trump ended the family separation policy, but allowed these families to be detained at the border indefinitely.

Judge Boasberg acknowledged public outrage over the family separation policy in the opening line of his opinion, “As the events of recent months make clear, the question of how this nation will treat those who come to our shores seeking refuge generates enormous debate.”

 

 

Media Resources: New York Times 7/2/18; Al Jazeera 7/2/18; NPR 7/2/18; CNN 7/3/18; Feminist Newswire 6/20/18

Larry Nassar Faces Additional Charges

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

A grand jury in Texas has charged former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics Team Doctor Larry Nassar with six additional counts of sexual assault for attacks that allegedly occurred at the famed Karoyli Ranch, a gymnastics training center for budding Olympians. The Karoyli Ranch near Houston is run by the notoriously abusive gymnastic coaches Martha and Bele Karoyli. County prosecutors have declined to file charges against the couple.

In January, Nassar was sentenced in Ingham County, Michigan to 40-175 years in prison for sexually abusing girls who sought medical treatment. At Nassar’s sentencing hearing, 156 survivors made statements about their experiences and exposed the system that allows predators to prey on young girls. Nassar is accused of sexually assaulting over 200 women and girls.

Additionally, an Eaton County court sentenced Nassar to another 40 to 125 years in prison on three counts of criminal sexual conduct. That sentence will be served concurrently with the Ingham County sentence after Nassar serves a separate 60-year sentence in federal prison on child pornography convictions

The survivors who have spoken out about the abuse they suffered under Nassar have sharply criticized Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics, and the US Olympic Committee for failing to take any action with regard to accusations against Nassar. Since 1997, women and girls have reported being sexually assaulted by the former doctor, yet none of the institutions that employed him ever took any notable action to investigate him or protect other athletes from his assaults.

Even Michigan State’s Title IX coordinator dismissed reports from students alleging Nassar had sexually assaulted them. After Nassar was reported to the FBI in July 2015, he was no longer allowed to treat patients at USA Gymnastics, but was permitted to continue sexually assaulting young women and girls for over a year at Michigan State.

In February, Congress passed the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act, which makes it mandatory for sports organizations to report alleged sexual abuse of athletes to law enforcement or social services within 24 hours. The bill was passed after Nassar was sentenced to a combined total of over 200 years in prison for possessing child pornography and sexually abusing over 200 women and girls who sought medical treatment.

 

Media Resources: CNN 6/29/18; Washington Post 6/29/18; Feminist Newswire 2/6/18

Trump Administration Attacks Affirmative Action Admission Policies

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

The Trump administration will encourage schools to implement race-blind admissions policies, a reversal from an Obama-era guidance. Under the Obama Administration, the Education Department’s civil rights division issued seven guidance documents urging schools to consider race during admissions when attempting to diversify student bodies. The Justice Department plans to scrap these guidance efforts.

The Obama-era guidance advised schools on how to adopt affirmative action policies that could survive potential legal challenges. The guidance documents were issued with the belief that diversity in schools enhanced an educational environment.

Justice Anthony Kennedy acted as the swing vote on the Supreme Court in upholding affirmative action in college admissions, including the decision in Fisher v. University of Texas, which reaffirmed that campus diversity is a compelling state interest. Kennedy’s retirement could allow the Court to take a more conservative stance on college admissions in future cases.

A pending lawsuit against Harvard’s admissions policies may give the soon-to-be conservative Supreme Court an opportunity to further limit affirmative action. The plaintiff argues that Harvard’s admissions policies systematically exclude Asian-Americans so Harvard can admit students of other races.

Last August, the Trump administration directed the Justice Department to investigate and sue universities “discriminating against white people” through affirmative action policies.

“Trump administration’s Department of Justice seeking lawyers to investigate and sue colleges for so-called reverse racism against white students is shameful race-baiting politics at its worse,” Eleanor Smeal, President of Feminist Majority said in a statement last summer. “The decision would show a complete lack of understanding of both the history of racial oppression in our country and the need for diversity in our nation’s colleges and universities. The problem is not affirmative action, but rather the gross under-representation of African American and Latinx students at many institutions of higher education.”

 

 

Media Resources: Politico 7/3/18; New York Times 7/3/18; Feminist Newswire 8/2/17

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