Amicus Blog
The Federal Government’s Execution Spree Must End
On July 25, 2019, US Attorney General William Barr announced that the US government would resume executions after a nearly two-decade hiatus. The first killing of the new regime occurred nearly a year later with the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee on July 14, 2020. In...
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A Colorblind Test For a Racialized System
A “reasonable juvenile” standard employs a colorblind test to regulate a deeply racialized system. That is a recipe for perpetuating inequality and undermining constitutional law’s ability to protect the most marginalized.
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This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
This week, concerns about voter disenfranchisement heading into the 2020 Presidential election are high, a domestic terrorist group attempted to kidnap the Governor of Michigan, President Trump has refused to participate in the next Presidential debate, and the Senate holds hearings for Amy Comey Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination amid news of her anti-choice involvement.
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Woke Superheroes
In their day, strong men in spandex were celebrated for bringing justice to their cities. But today, our concept of justice is markedly different than it was in the 1960s: beating up or caging enough “bad guys” will never eliminate society’s scourges. The real options are harder and do not work 100 percent of the time. We cannot count on cheap, flawless, always reliable alternatives to prison and policing any more than we can count on Spiderman to stop a robbery.
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This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Welcome to This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. This week, Breonna Taylor’s grand jury recordings were released. Trump refused to condemn white supremacists and appeared to insinuate that minorities and low-income people are ruining the “American Dream.” The...
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Democracy For Whom? How the 11th Circuit’s Decision Fits Within a Broader History of Racial Exclusion in the United States.
The 11th Circuit’s recent decision serves as a reminder that institutions of racial domination do not simply die, but rather evolve over time. We must work to undo the myriad ways in which our democracy systematically favors White voices over Black.
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This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Welcome to This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. This week, Amy Coney Barrett was selected to replace Justice Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, Breonna Taylor’s killers were not indicted for her death, and President Trump refused to commit to a peaceful...
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America’s War on Black Trans Women
The message of our federal and state governments failing to protect (and sometimes actively harming) Black trans women is terrifying: if the government doesn’t care about Black trans women, then citizens don’t have to care either. In other words, because the law treats Black trans women with disregard and violence, it gives individuals a free pass to do the same.
read moreBostock v. Clayton County: This Summer’s LGBTQ Victory & The Challenges Ahead
By a 6-3 majority, the Supreme Court in Bostock v. Clayton County held that Title VII protects employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The decision consolidates three cases: two involving gay men who were fired by their...
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This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
This week, the Department of Homeland Security investigates allegations of unwanted hysterectomies at an immigration detention center, postal workers face mounting COVID-19 risks as the election approaches, and the Education Department withholds millions of dollars in desegregation grant money from Connecticut schools.
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This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Welcome to This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. SCOTUS will consider access to medical abortions, while the 11th Circuit ok’d Florida’s pay-to-vote system for people convicted of felonies. Three studies shed light on a host of inequities facing Illinois...
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School Policing was Designed to Criminalize Black Students. We Must Follow Black Voices Calling for its Abolition.
The recent uprisings in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black people by police have amplified decades-long efforts by Black students and activists to abolish school police. We must collectively follow these Black leaders to ensure that schools are redesigned to nurture their most vulnerable students.
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