At issue this week were defense lawyers claims that intelligence and security surveillance measures have violated the sacrosanct principle of attorney-client privilege, obstructing their ability to effectively represent the accused. In late January, courtroom audio feed – which runs on a 40-second delay to media and observers seated behind Plexiglass – was abruptly cut off…
Category: Liberty
Michigan GOP Would Force Women To Undergo Invasive Ultrasounds Before Getting An Abortion
Michigan Republicans introduced a mandatory ultrasound bill this week with a carefully-worded clause that threatens to stir up controversy that first erupted during the height of last year’s “War on Women.” By stipulating that the ultrasounds must use the “most technologically advanced equipment on site,” Michigan lawmakers would require women seeking abortions to undergo…
Blacks, Hispanics Waited Almost Twice As Long To Vote As Whites In 2012
During the November 2012 election, Black and Hispanic voters waited nearly twice as long to vote as whites, according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology analysis. New York Times graphs summarizing the analysis show that white voters waited an average of 12.7 minutes, while Black and Hispanic voters waited an average of 20.2 minutes: Long lines…
Florida Rep. Wants To Limit Death Penalty Appeals In State With Most Exonerated Death Row Inmates
Like most death penalty states, Florida has a web of state-level appeals processes and additional checks to ensure that every aspect of a case is thoroughly examined before an accused criminal is executed. This system is expensive and often cruel, which is why many death penalty advocates cite extended death row wait times during the…
Grand Theft Election
President Barack Obama won a commanding victory in this November’s elections, defeating Republican candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by nearly 4 percentage points in the popular vote. In doing so, President Obama became the first president to twice win more than 51 percent of the popular vote since President Dwight D. Eisenhower did so…
Report: Ohio Secretary Of State’s Restrictive Voting Hours Hurt Urban Voters
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) became one of the most notorious election officials in the country after his many attempts to restrict voting and discard ballots. Husted banned evening and weekend voting hours in all 88 boards of election, in spite of multiple counties‘ requests to stay open to accommodate people who could…
Legalization’s Biggest Enemies
The marijuana legalization initiatives that triumphed in Washington and Colorado this past fall faced surprisingly little organized opposition. Money tells the story: Washington’s pro-legalization initiative I-502 raised more than $6 million from supporters, while the campaign against it pulled less than $16,000. In Colorado, meanwhile, proponents of Amendment 64 raised more than $2 million, outdoing…
McDonnell Doesn’t Rule Out Signing GOP’s Secret Redistricting Plan
Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) expressed displeasure Monday with the Republican Senate’s sneaky maneuver to subvert majority rule and gerrymander the Senate in such a way that could give themselves a super-majority — but has not yet said whether he would veto the bill. But to live up to his previous promises, he will have to…
600 Teachers Apply to Learn How to Shoot a Gun at School
As of this Wednesday, over 600 teachers from 15 states have applied for a free firearms training program that a gun advocacy group, the Buckeye Firearms Association, announced it would sponsor in the wake of the Newtown school shooting. The three-day training will train teachers how to wield firearms in the case of a school…
Charts: 247,131 Fatal Shootings in 8 Years
That’s a lot of bodies—247,131 to be exact. A lot of blood and grief and funerals. A lot of families devastated. But the price is far higher than this, really. Because we tend to count the bodies but seldom think much of the bodies ruined, the human potential destroyed, the teenagers relegated to wheelchairs, the…
Supreme Court Inaction Boosts Right To Record Police Officers
The Illinois and Massachusetts laws have been used to arrest people who attempt to record on-duty police officers and other public officials. In one of the more notorious cases, Chicago resident Tiawanda Moore was arrested in 2010 when she attempted to use her cell phone to record officers in a Chicago police station. Moore…
Pot legalization proceeds in key states with Feds mostly silent
The Obama administration’s relative silence on moves to legalize recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington has left officials in those Western states unsure how to move forward without running afoul of the U.S. federal government. But change is already afoot when it comes to how the two states and local authorities deal with marijuana….
Voting Dade County – Progressive Recommendations
Here are my picks for the Dade county ballot. ***************************************************** Please remember- it seems like a lot, but there are important issues further down the ballot, and they are often decided by a few votes. Please vote all the way down. Use this guide – it’s not as hard to get through as…
Democracy in Suspense: Why Arizona’s Native Voters Are in Peril
Arizona’s Apache County is obscuring the collective power of the Native vote in an unprecedented way. The County, which has previously violated the Voting Rights Act, has inaccurately placed more than 500 people who attempted to register on a list that could permanently purge these would-be voters from the rolls. And most, if not all,…
Bronx Prosecutors Wary Of Arrests From NYPD Stop-And-Frisks
The NYPD’s stop-and-frisk tactics came under fire after news emerged that police stops in New York City increased by more than half a million between 2003 and 2011, and that New York officers conducted more stops of young black men in 2011 than there are young black men in the city. A significant proportion of NYPD stops, 10…
Voting laws may disenfranchise 10 million Hispanic U.S. citizens: study
Laws in effect in one state and pending in two others require proof of citizenship for voter registration. That imposes onerous and sometimes expensive documentation requirements on voters, especially targeting naturalized American citizens, many of whom are Latino, the liberal group said. Nine states have passed restrictive photo identification laws that impose costs in time…
Romney’s ads show miners not paid during campaign stop
Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, went up with the two ads this morning – both of them hitting President Barack Obama on coal. The two ads titled “War on Coal” and “Way of Life” include shots of Romney on a stage with soot-covered coal miners. The footage is from Romney’s Aug. 14 campaign stop at…
Amid court challenges, early voting begins in U.S. election
The November 6 election is still seven weeks away, but early, in-person voting begins in two states on Friday, even as Democrats and Republicans battle in court over controversial plans to limit such voting before Election Day. Idaho and South Dakota are the first states to begin early voting on Friday, although North Carolina has…
Never Mind Super PACs: How Big Business Is Buying the Election
US law still bans foreign corporations from participating directly in elections. But after Citizens United, trade associations like API—whose influential members include foreign corporations—are free to spend as they wish, unburdened by disclosure requirements. And these groups have taken full advantage of their new freedoms. While other campaign committees, from labor unions to Super PACs, face…
License plates scanned at border, data shared with car insurance group
As public scrutiny continues to mount against the use of license plate readers (LPRs) across the country, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has now released government documents showing that such data, which includes precise GPS location, date, and timestamps, in addition to the plate in question, are shared with an auto insurance umbrella organization. The documents, published on Tuesday…