United States District Judge Susan R. Bolton, a federal judge, denied a request Wednesday to block the “show me your papers” provision in Arizona’s immigration law. The Arizona law allows law enforcement officials in the state to request proof of legal immigration, residency, or citizenship of anyone they suspect might be an illegal immigrant. Her […]
Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown Law School student Republicans refused to allow to testify at a House Committee hearing on the religious exemption on contraception coverage and women’s health, addressed the Democratic National Convention last night in Charlotte, North Carolina. Fluke spoke about how the outcome of November Election could impact women’s rights. Earlier this year, […]
The 10,000 person cap for the U Visa, a visa for immigrants designed to give victims of physical or mental abuse temporary legal status and work eligibility for four years, has been reached this year. This is the third consecutive year the visa has reached its cap, and never has the cap been reached this […]
The Chicago Police Department adopted a new policy for respectfully handling transgender suspects on August 22nd of this year. The changes have been supported by multiple transgender-rights organizations, and were not formally announced by the police department. The new policy prohibits an officer from searching a person to determine their gender and requires that transgender […]
Michelle Obama spoke on key women’s issues including health care reform, financial aid, same-sex marriage, equal pay,and abortion in her address at the Democratic National Convention last night. While speaking from her childhood experiences, Michelle Obama voiced her full support for the Affordable Care Act and continued heath care reform, as well as funding for […]
Lilly Ledbetter, who initiated one of the largest legal battles for equal pay for equal work, addressed the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, Tuesday evening. Ledbetter shared with the convention her decade-long struggle to get compensation from Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., who paid her less than her male […]
The Democratic National Convention began this morning by releasing Democratic 2012 Party Platform, which seeks to protect abortion access, ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, defend Obamacare, support immigration reform and legalize same-sex marriage among other positions. On abortion – “Abortion is an intensely personal decision between a woman, her family, her doctor and her clergy; […]
Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) entered the rape exception debate when speaking at a town hall on Thursday. When asked about abortion in cases of rape, Bartlett responded that there are so few pregnancies from rape that an exception would not be an issue. Congressman Bartlett is currently in a tight race to win re-election against […]
For the first time since the 1960’s, a woman wearing a traditional Muslim headscarf known as a hijab, presented the news on an Egyptian state TV channel. Fatima Nabil appeared on Sunday to give the mid-day news bulletin. After her segment, Nabil told reporters “At last the revolution has reached state television.” Under former President […]
Mitt Romney officially accepted the Republican Presidential nomination Thursday evening. In his acceptance speech on the final night of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL, Romney echoed key points of the Republican platform including planks that support eliminating a woman’s right to choose and banning same sex marriage by defending the “sanctity of life” […]
A federal court rejected a Texas voter identification law on Thursday. The three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court decided that the law would unduly prevent minorities from being able to vote. If enacted, the law would have required voters to present one of six state-approved IDs before being able to vote. Voters would be […]
District Judge Robert Hinkle announced Wednesday that he will granting a motion to permanently block strict voter registration laws that prevent third-party organizations from registering new voters in Florida. Hinkle will be able to officially grant the motion once a federal appeals court dismisses the case. The State of Florida has agreed to drop the […]
On Tuesday, the Republican Party approved their 2012 platform, which seeks to undo years of legislation protecting reproductive choice, marriage equality, disability rights, affirmative action, education, immigration reform, and voting rights among others. The platform takes the following positions: On abortion – “We assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child […]
A “personhood” amendment granting rights to a fertilized egg will not appear on the November 2012 Colorado ballot because it failed to gather enough valid signatures. The Colorado Secretary of State announced that the initiative fell short of the 86,105 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot by 3,859 valid signatures, according to local KDVR. […]
Senior Cardinal Timothy Dolan will give the benediction at the Democratic National Convention a week after leading prayer at the Republican National Convention. Cardinal Dolan is the senior Catholic Cardinal in the United States and is also President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Earlier this year, documents surfaced showing that Dolan, as then […]
Six companies have announced they are separating from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) – General Electric, Western Union, Sprint Nextel, Symantec (creators of Norton anti-virus software), Reckitt Benckiser Group (which makes Lysol), and Entergy (a Louisiana-based power company). ALEC came under scrutiny for their support of “Stand Your Ground” legislation used in the defense […]
Gender stereotypes are prevalent in many K-12 public coeducational schools with single-sex academic classes and programs across the country according to the ACLU’s “Teach Kids, Not Stereotypes” campaign report released last week. The ACLU’s report looks at self-reported documents by 21 school districts in 15 states. The ACLU found that multiple public school single-sex classes […]
The Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Tom smith, a wealthy business man, stepped into the rape/abortion controversy. Smith, in commenting on U.S. Representative Todd Akin’s infamous statement about rape and abortion, compared a pregnancy conceived by rape to a pregnancy conceived simply out of wedlock. When speaking to the Pennsylvania Press Club, Smith […]
Many women in rural areas of Kenya do not seek prenatal care in clinics for fear of being stigmatized as being HIV positive, according to a study published in PLoS Medicine, the leading open-access medical journal. The study, based on a 2007-2009 survey of 1,777 pregnant women in a highly-populated area of rural Kenya, found […]
Charlie Crist, the former Florida Republican governor, announced his support for President Barack Obama in an editorial in the Tampa Bay Times Sunday on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Crist, who is now registered independent, applauded President Obama’s actions as president, citing his efforts to improve the economy, infrastructure, education, and […]
