The Supreme Court overturned a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, removing a critical tool to combat racial discrimination in voting. See all of the Center's recent resources on the VRA and ideas on how to move forward after the Court's decision.
The case of Reno v. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee 97-1252, to be argued before the Supreme Court Nov. 4, reviews whether an individual deserves prompt judicial review when asserting a First Amendment defense in response to the government’s prosecution. Its not a high-profile case, but the principle at stake is constitutional bedrock, and the case requires the court to fulfill its critical, if not always popular, role in our tripartite democracy.
Senate majority leader Trent Lott has established a new rule for the federal judicial selection process. There can be one, and only one, Hispanic woman on the United States Courts of Appeals. Since there is already one such judge (Rosemary Barkett, on the 11th Circuit), other Hispanic women can serve on trial courts, but the appellate courts are officially off limits.
An alarm has been set off among lawyers, in New York and across the nation, by the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Phillips v. Washington Legal Foundation, 1998 WL 309070 (U.S. 1998), concerning Texas’ Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program. Lawyers are wondering whether they should continue to place client funds in the pooled interest-bearing accounts established under such programs. The answer is: absolutely.
While Democrats and Republicans on Capital Hill debate the merits of campaign finance reform, the Republican National Committee and the Ohio Democratic Party are busy at work in federal court seeking to undermine the last remaining vestiges of federal cam
"We believe that the First Amendment is designed to safeguard a functioning and fair democracy. The current system of campaign financing makes a mockery of that ideal by enabling the rich to set the national agenda, and to exercise disproportionate influe
We own the airwaves. We, the public. Not GE, not Disney, not Westinghouse, and not Rupert Murdoch. But we lend them our airwaves for free, as trustees, in return for a pledge to serve the public interest.
