by Jillia Pessenda* Across the country women are running for office in record numbers. At Women Winning, a Minnesota-based organization dedicated to electing pro-choice women from all political parties to all levels of public office, we see this unprecedented national trend reflected in our work across the state. At a time when we are confronting the omnipresent misogyny of Donald Trump and his administration, women are tackling adversity by stepping up to run for office. And we must; …
Antitrust, Political Economy, and the Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh
By Chris Sagers[1] In the world there are weightier things than antitrust, and the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh involves many of them. His replacement of Anthony Kennedy will likely change the Court’s balance in several areas, perhaps including the constitutional status of abortion, marriage rights, and who knows what other civil rights affairs. It also no doubt poses concerns about challenges to the Trump administration and the President himself, in the ethical, national …
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Fighting to Restore Civil Rights and Felon Rehabilitation in Florida
By Eric Allen Kauk* This November Florida will vote on Amendment 4, a measure that would automatically restore the right to vote to 1,487,847 convicted felons who have successfully served their entire sentence and paid their debt to society. Florida lags far behind the rest of the country when it comes to restoring individuals’ civil rights. In 2016, more Floridians had lost their civil rights due to prior convictions than citizens in any other state. Florida disenfranchises more people …
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Trump’s Flailing Ratchet: From “Bad Hombres” to “Zero Tolerance”
By Amien Kacou* The Trump administration has made fighting illegal immigration a top law enforcement priority. But, despite the President’s frequent displays of availability bias—if not vicious cynicism—on this issue, it is well-established that immigrants, regardless of legal status or origins, are on average less likely than citizens to commit most crimes. In fact, their presence usually translates to an overall reduction of crime rates in areas where they settle. Likewise, at the …
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Epistemic Humility as a Presidential Virtue
By Mark Satta* There are a lot of traits worth wanting in a political leader—relevant experience, good public speaking skills, strong critical thinking skills, a charming personality, empathy, tact, wisdom, diligence, willingness to serve those whom one leads, etc. The current President of the United States seems to lack an unsettling number of these traits, but North Korea’s recent attempt to use the potential North Korea-United States summit as leverage against United States’ foreign …
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Roe v. Wade: Past, Present, and Future
By Geoffrey R. Stone* We are living in perilous times. As we contemplate the prospect of another appointment by Donald Trump to the Supreme Court of the United States, the stakes for our nation are extraordinarily high. Among the many issues at risk, perhaps the most important concerns the right of a woman to decide for herself whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term. Having recently marked the forty-fifth anniversary of the Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade – an anniversary that means …
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