Migration Category: news-5001-10000-national

The US House of Representatives is expected to vote sometime this week on a bill that could effectively disenfranchise registered and eligible voters across the country. [UPDATE: The House passed this bill on Wednesday, Sept. 20. The bill has now moved to the Senate.] The “Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006” (H.R. 4844), introduced by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), would require all voters to obtain and produce a photo, government-issued identification card that proves citizenship in order to vote. According to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, most states do not accept drivers’ licenses as a valid proof of citizenship, meaning that many citizens who only have a drivers’ license would be unable to vote until another form of identification is secured.

The League of Women Voters has joined Democrats in criticizing the bill, arguing that this bill is “a manipulation of the voting process,” and that it discriminates against those who may have a more difficult time obtaining another form of identification – such as the elderly, young people, people of color, and rural voters, according to the Democratic National Committee. The bill has also been likened to a poll tax; federally issued identification cards often cost money, and the fee to obtain a passport, which would suffice to prove citizenship, is $97.

Yesterday, in Georgia, a state Superior Court judge issued an injunction against a similar voter ID law, ruling that the law would violate the constitutional rights of Georgia citizens and could result in the disenfranchisement of legally registered voters, according to the Associated Press.

Women face discrimination from academic institutions in science and technology fields, according to a new report released Monday from the National Academy of Sciences. The report, “Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering,” finds that women’s lack of participation within science and technology fields in academia can be attributed to gender bias and barriers within hiring and promotion practices in research institutions. Emphasized in the report is the important role that women scientists play in keeping the US competitive in science and engineering fields.

“Women are capable of contributing more to the nation’s science and engineering research enterprise, but bias and outmoded practices governing academic success impede their progress almost every step of the way,” said Donna Shalala, chair of the committee that wrote the report and current president of University of Miami, in a National Academies release accompanying the report. Four times more men serve as full-time faculty than women among those who hold Ph.D.s in science and engineering fields, according to the report.

To decrease gender bias, the report suggests that an inter-institutional organization be established, which could monitor academic institutions and set guidelines for hiring and promotion practices. It also suggests that individual institutions develop policies that allow faculty greater flexibility in research and tenure timetables, allowing more working mothers to meet these deadlines.

LEARN MORE about Title IX and education equality.

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The Illinois Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will revive a 1995 act that will require parental notification for women under 18 seeking an abortion. The Parental Notice of Abortion Act was never enforceable in Illinois because the state Supreme Court at that time refused to establish rules for appeals in special circumstances, Associated Press reports. Now, however, only one of the seven justices who made that decision in 1996 remains on the court.

The law requires that a doctor must alert either a parent, grandparent, or stepparent living with the woman or the woman’s legal guardian at least 48 hours before an abortion is performed for a woman under 18 years old. There are exceptions if, for example, the minor has been sexually or physically abused by her parent; if the minor is “sufficiently mature; or if alerting a parent is not in the minor’s best interest,” the Chicago Tribune reports. “This is bad policy,” Lorie Chaiten, director of the Reproductive Rights Project for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, told the Chicago Tribune. “The vast majority of young women who are thinking about having an abortion do involve their parents. For those who don’t, they don’t for good reasons.”

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An investigating committee of the Pittsburgh Presbytery has found Reverend Janet Edwards in violation of the Church’s constitution for performing marriage rites for a same-sex couple. Rev. Edwards now faces a rebuke or loss of her ministry. According to the constitution of the Presbyterian Church, a minister may bless “holy unions,” but marriage should be reserved for a man and a woman.

Edwards, who has been a minister for 29 years, sees her current role as vital to the Church. Says Edwards, “Opening our hearts and our doors to our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters is just the next chapter of our centuries-old tradition of reform.”

Another local ruling had the opposite result. In March, Redwoods Presbytery of Northern California found a minister not guilty for marrying two same-sex couples, stating that the unions were not “outside or contrary to the essentials of the Reformed faith.” Both cases may eventually reach the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court of the Presbyterian Church (USA), for a final decision.

The Internal Revenue Service has revoked Operation Rescue West’s tax-exempt status after Catholics for a Free Choice submitted a complaint to the IRS, accusing the anti-abortion group of violating electoral regulations for nonprofits. While the IRS has not yet released any information regarding the reasons for which it revoked Operation Rescue West’s (ORW) status, the complaint filed by Catholics for a Free Choice (CCFC) provided information on ORW’s activities during the 2004 election. CCFC alleged that Operation Rescue West (ORW), at that time a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, violated its IRS status by joining in electoral activities. Federal law prohibits 501(c)(3) charities and churches from campaigning for and promoting candidates.

In a press release, CCFC President Frances Kissling said, “We applaud the IRS for its vigilance in monitoring election activities by 501(c)(3) organizations and hope the revocation of Operation Rescue West’s tax-exempt status will send a clear message to tax-exempt groups that think they are above the law that such activities will be monitored, reported to the IRS, and acted upon.” Kissling also added that CCFC will continue to be vigilant of other nonprofit organizations’ activities during the election season in 2006.

CCFC is concerned that this kind of violation of electoral regulations by anti-abortion groups is more widespread. CFFC has also filed complaints against Catholic Answers and Priests for Life, two other anti-choice groups.

In a conference held yesterday in Washington, DC, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law released its predictions for new voter suppression strategies that may be used by government officials for the 2006 elections. The conference highlighted five ways in which the disenfranchisement of eligible voters may occur in the November elections: restrictions on voter registration drives, barriers to getting on the voter rolls, purges of the voter rolls, requirements for voter ID and proof of citizenship, and the security of voting machines. The implications of these strategies may make it difficult and frustrating for potential voters to register before and vote on Election Day.

Restricting voter registration drives makes it especially difficult to register the 54 million eligible Americans who are not yet registered to vote. According to the Brennan Center, non-profit organizations registered millions of new voters for the 2004 elections. Restricting non-profit voter registration drives would be yet another barrier to the disabled, elderly, low-income populations and students who have typically found it difficult to register otherwise. Many states have enacted laws that restrict these voter registration drives by including strict deadlines and time requirements.

The Feminist Majority Foundation’s Get Out Her Vote Campaign is a student voter education and registration initiative that aims to raise registration and voting by young women. The campaign targets young women and students of color as they are typically underrepresented groups.

LEARN MORE about the Feminist Majority Foundation’s campaign to Get Out HER Vote

Former Texas Governor and feminist leader Ann Richards died Wednesday after a six-month long struggle with esophageal cancer. Richards was the first female governor of Texas to win in her own right, beating out Republican millionaire Clayton Williams in 1990. Prior to becoming governor, Richards was county commissioner and state treasurer.

Helping others usually ignored by Texas politics, especially women and minorities, was Richards’ reason for entering politics, according to the Associated Press. Living up to this goal, Richards appointed more women and minorities during her time in office than any of her predecessors, dubbing her administration the “New Texas”. After losing her re-election bid to George W. Bush in 1994, Richards continued to advocate for women’s equality, including the development of a women’s leadership school set to open in 2007.

Richards used her visibility and sharp wit to encourage other women to run for office, helping to elect countless women to public office and other positions of power. She was the co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus, an organization dedicated to recruiting, training, and electing women to political office. Richards was also a Texas delegate at the National Women’s Conference of 1977, which passed a historic platform of action to achieve full equality for women and men.

On Monday, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley vetoed legislation that would have required “big-box” retailers like Wal-Mart to pay at least $10 an hour, a contentious action that forced him to defend his veto in a news conference on Tuesday while angry protestors gathered outside. Meanwhile, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a raise in the minimum wage for Californian workers to $8 an hour by 2008, which will make it the highest minimum wage in the US. This is the third time Gov. Schwarzenegger has been given minimum wage legislation; the first two bills he vetoed. Both Daley and Schwarzenegger are up for re-election in November.

The two events highlight the increasing role that the minimum wage increase is playing in election politics. In the last year, ten state legislatures have passed laws increasing their minimum wage. Six states Ñ Arizona, Colorado, Ohio, Nevada, Missouri, and Montana Ñ have ballot initiatives in November to raise their state’s minimum wage above the federal standard of $5.15 an hour. If even three of the initiatives pass, a majority of states will have minimum wages above the federal level for the first time in the minimum wage’s history. Currently, 23 states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the federal level.

If the federal minimum wage is not increased by December, the US will have gone the longest period of time without an increase in minimum wage since it was enacted in 1938. The House of Representatives approved legislation in July that would have tied a large increase in the federal minimum wage to tax breaks and a permanent reduction in the estate tax. Senate Democrats vetoed the legislation, calling the marrying of tax breaks for the wealthy (at the tune of $750 billion) to an increase in pay for low-wage workers unacceptable.

A federal district court judge yesterday declined to block an Arizona state law requiring voters to present an Arizona driver’s license or state-issued photo ID card, or two forms of approved non-photo forms of identification, such as a birth certificate and utility bill dated within the past 90 days. The new law also requires proof of citizenship for newly registering voters. Voting rights advocates, including the Feminist Majority Foundation, argue that the voter ID law places an undue burden on voting populations such as students, especially out-of-state students, Latinos, and low-income people.

“This law is essentially a poll tax for out-of-state students, who have a right to register and vote where they attend school,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. Opponents of the law have appealed the US District Court ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Feminist Majority Foundation conducts a non-partisan nationwide Get Out Her Vote Campaign to register and mobilize thousands of college students, especially young women, to vote on November 7.

TAKE ACTION Join the Get Out Her Vote Campaign

More than 100 members of Congress asked the US Department of Labor to continue its support of the Women’s Bureau, the only bureau dedicated exclusively to women’s issues in employment. The Department of Labor has plans to outsource half of the career positions within the Women’s Bureau, according to a press release from Congresswomen Hilda Solis (D-CA) and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), replacing staff with contractors.

In a signed letter, the members of Congress asked the Secretary of the Department of Labor, Elaine Chao, not to outsource these positions as “such action would result in a significant loss of institutional knowledge for the Women’s Bureau and would considerably reduce the Bureau’s effectiveness.” The Representatives also asked Secretary Chao to fill important regional positions for the bureau that have been left vacant.

“While women have made enormous strides in the workplace since the Women’s Bureau was established, they continue to face wage gaps, glass ceilings, and discrimination on the jobÉ. Outsourcing half of the career positions in the Women’s Bureau, in addition to their already stretched resources and declining funding, could prove to be the agency’s breaking point,” said Congresswoman Solis.

Last month, a coalition of over 200 women’s organizations, including the Feminist Majority, called on Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao to strengthen the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau, stressing many of the same concerns as the members of Congress.

The New York Court of Appeals heard a challenge to the Women’s Health and Wellness Act of 2003 (WHWA), New York’s law requiring prescription equity for women, on Wednesday. WHWA only provides exception to prescription coverage equity for religious organizations that serve their religious communities; charities run by religious organizations that serve the secular community must provide equity in prescription coverage. The organizations that challenged the law are a coalition of Catholic and Baptist charities that find the religious exception unconstitutionally narrow.

The law provides equitable insurance coverage for female employees working at organizations that provide prescription coverage. The law ensures that women are covered by their insurance for mammograms, osteoporosis tests, cervical cancer screenings, and contraceptives. Women without equitable insurance coverage pay about 68 percent more out-of-pocket for health care than men, according to the Albany Times-Union.

Kathy Castor, a county commissioner and daughter of noted politician Betty Castor, won the Democratic nomination in Florida for the open 11th Congressional District seat. The Tuesday election pitted Castor against four male opponents; Castor won by a margin of 20 percentage points, garnering more votes than all of the other candidates combined. “I am completely humbled that the voters have put their confidence in me,” said Castor of the primary election results during a campaign event, according to the Tampa Tribune. “I will not let them down.”

Endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC and EMILY’s List, Castor earned the support of her pro-choice constituents for her strong stance on women’s reproductive rights. Additionally, Castor secured the respect of many by sponsoring projects that support disadvantaged families. While serving on the largely Republican county commission, Castor successfully blocked motions to slash health care programs for the poor and to cut public transit programs. Castor attributes this progressive political ideology to her mother’s influence. “[She] would stand up for people who didn’t have a voice,” said Castor in an official statement.

Castor is expectedly to easily win the November 7 election against her Republican opponent, Eddie Adams Jr.; Democrats in the 11th Congressional District outnumber Republicans almost 2-1.

Both public and private institutions have sparked controversy by promoting gender-specific dress codes for employees. The US Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has come under criticism for publishing gendered clothing tips in the employee newsletter this summer. OSC’s newsletter included a “Business Casual do’s and don’ts,” offering “sexist and patronizing advice” to professional women in the workplace, according to Debra S. Katz, an attorney who is representing a group of OSC employees. In a letter to the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues last week, Katz asked that steps be taken to direct OSC — which is ironically responsible for eliminating workplace sex discrimination — to rescind its dress advice and apologize for its offensive and sexist newsletter content.

Katz adds that under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, employers are legally accountable for “rigid gender-based stereotypes [which] operate to the detriment of their female employees.” While the courts have upheld the rights of companies to promote different grooming standards for the sexes, an employer must ensure that each sex is “equally burdened,” Law.com writes.

In a similar case earlier this year, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals found that a Harrah’s Casino policy violated Title VII, siding with Darlene Jespersen, who filed a sex discrimination suit after being fired from Harrah’s for refusing to comply with a new grooming policy. According to Lambda Legal, which served as co-counsel on Jespersen’s case, Harrah’s policy required that all women in the beverage department wear specific makeup to match a photograph, while men were forbidden from wearing any makeup at all. Women also had to wear their hair styled and maintain clear, red, pink, or white painted fingernails. Jespersen successfully argued that the requirements make her feel “demeaned,” “degraded,” and unable to remain credible as a bartender who occasionally breaks up fights, Law.com reports.

The Texas Medical Board finalized Texas’ parental consent form last week for women under 18 seeking an abortion, mandating that the form be notarized by a third party. Though the Texas legislature passed the parental consent law in 2005, the Medical Board was responsible for drafting the final version of the form. The parental consent law passed by the legislature did not require the form be notarized. The official consent form will take effect 20 days after it is published in the Texas Register, which is expected to happen in the next two weeks, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Reproductive rights activists opposed the notarization requirement because of the added difficulty that it places on pregnant teens, and because of the lack of privacy involved with notarization. “This is the result of political pressure from other organizations who do not believe a woman or her parents can be trusted with private medical decisions,” said Emily Snooks, spokeswoman of Planned Parenthood of North Texas, about the notarization requirement according the Star-Telegram.

The US Tennis Association (USTA) paid tribute to legendary tennis player Billie Jean King by renaming the US National Tennis Center in her honor last week. King, who touts an impressive 39 Grand Slam titles, garnered fame for her triumph in the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes,” in which she beat the number-one ranked tennis player Bobby Riggs, also a well-known male chauvinist. Following her rise to fame, she spent years promoting equality in girls and women’s sports, including advocating for the passage of Title IX and equity in prize money for men and women’s sporting events.

“Billie Jean King is a great champion, but she’s used her success to do a lot more than impact the sport. She’s impacted society. There are thousands of kids who have benefited. She’s an American hero,” said Arlen Kantarian, the USTA chief executive of professional tennis, according to CBS Sportsline.

The opening ceremony for the 2006 US Open last Monday officially marked the renaming of the famed tennis tournament’s arena to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The arena is used for the US Open and for 65,000 recreational players year-round.

President Bush has announced that he will re-nominate five of his most contentious nominees to serve on federal appellate courts when the Senate reconvenes next week. The nominations were returned to Bush when the Senate recessed in August. Senate Democrats blocked attempts by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) to waive the rule that returns all nominees to the President when the Senate recesses for more than 30 days.

Included on the list is District Court Judge Terrence Boyle, a former aide to Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), who was blocked by Democrats when he was first nominated to serve on the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush. Boyle, one of President Bush’s most controversial nominees, has issued numerous opinions hostile to affirmative action, women’s rights, fair employment, and voting rights. The most recent controversy surrounding Boyle is a report that reveals that he failed to recuse himself from nine cases in which he had a conflict of interest. Although Boyle was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, his nomination did not reach the Senate floor for a vote.

Bush will also resubmit the nomination of William J. Haynes II for the 4th Circuit. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) wrote about Haynes in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, “Nominations do not get much worse than thisÉHaynes does not come anywhere close to the commitment to fundamental rights and the principle of separation of powers that we all expect from the federal courts. He would be a poster boy on the 4th Circuit for denying the rule of law…”

The third on this list of five nominees is Norman Randy Smith of Idaho, who has a long history of representing Idaho’s large corporate interests, according to Alliance for Justice. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the only woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has vowed to block from a seat on the 9th Circuit that is traditionally held by a Californian according to the Legal Times. William Myers III, also from Idaho and to be nominated to the 9th Circuit, was previously blocked by a Democratic filibuster and then re-nominated. Patrick Leahy, (D-VT), ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said that Myers was blocked for being “the most anti-environmental nominee sent to the Senate…”

Bringing up the rear is the nomination of Michael B. Wallace to the 5th Circuit. Wallace, a former aide to Senator Trent Lott (D-MS), has the distinction of being the first appellate court nominee in 25 years to be given a rating of “unqualified” to sit on the federal bench by the American Bar Association.