What We’re Reading: a daily round-up of quick hits, clips, and opinion pieces touching on key issues of democracy, justice, liberty and national security.
The American Bar Association’s president writes to the New York Times, reiterating the need for legal aid programs for low-income citizens, while he disagrees with allowing nonlawyers to practice as a solution, as stated earlier in an editorial, “Addressing the Justice Gap.”
Dahlia Lithwick of Slate comments on Dick Cheney’s support for the use of torture and how his lack of respect for the law will continue to lead the United States to be ruled by the hand of man and not the law.
An Arizona Republic columnist observes the Arizona case challenging the Voting Rights Act has the potential to reshape the political landscape.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel argues for stricter campaign finance rules in Wisconsin, after statistics show 95% of television ads were negative attacks on candidates while the big spenders who financed those ads were often anonymous.
The Village Voice quotes Justice Brennan—"liberty is a fragile thing"—in an article that reports on the ignorance of New York students’ understanding of their own basic rights. The article is prompted in part by the findings in a recent Brennan Center report, A Report Card on New York’s Civic Literacy.
The Georgia Senate Reapportionment Committee will meet today, with the parties clashing over what proper compliance with the Voting Rights Act really means.