News & Commentary

Last week, there was a lot of emphasis on income inequality, social mobility, and class concerns, but not all of the attention came from President Obama and his State of the Union message. It was also "School Choice Week," and proponents of taxpayer-funded vouchers for students to pay for private and religious schools seized the opportunity to claim that vouchers will solve these challenging societal issues. However, when "school choice" means vouchers, what it really offers is discrimination and unaccountability.

Our country's federal prison population has grown by nearly 800% in the last 30 years.

Last week was a big week for immigration for two very different people: Justin Bieber and House Speaker John Boehner.

I don't know about you, but I love the Cheerios ad featuring the adorable daughter of an interracial couple. It's both sweet and charming, but what I really appreciate is its depiction of a family that is rarely visible on TV even though it is certainly reflective of the lived reality of many Americans.

Spring is not quite yet in the air (especially if you live in Atlanta), but happily, the House Republicans have come out of hibernation when it comes to immigration.

At Wednesday's Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, titled "Global Security Threats," Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) hinted that CIA agents might be engaging in abusive cyber operations against Americans. And CIA Director John Brennan did little to dispel the notion.

Transportation Security Administration employees subjected "Middle Easterners" to extra screening based solely on national origin, diverted "rude" passengers to retaliatory pat-down searches, and snickered at our "every fold and dimple on full awful display" from full-body scanners, according to former TSA employee Jason Edward Harrington. In a withering exposé entitled "Dear America, I Saw You Naked," Mr. Harrington draws back the curtain on the unfairness and absurdity of airport screening practices.

In what state are politicians considering a bill that would allow hospital staff to refuse to participate in any phase of patient care related to ending a pregnancy?

This week, the ACLU won an important battle on the road toward protecting the rights of American Indian children and their parents and tribes. Chief Judge Jeffrey L. Viken of South Dakota's federal District Court ruled that a lawsuit filed by the ACLU in March of 2013 can go forward, rejecting motions filed by the defendants that sought to have the case dismissed. The suit, brought on behalf of the Oglala and Rosebud Sioux Indian Tribes and a class of Indian parents, aims to ensure that state courts in South Dakota respect the rights granted to Indian parents by the Constitution's Due Process Clause and the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA). The defendants include a state court judge, a county prosecutor, and the director of the South Dakota Department of Social Services.