October 29, 2021 -
The Republicans who control legislatures in Arkansas, North Carolina, and Texas have drawn congressional maps that favor their party and disadvantage voters of color. Meanwhile, an independent redistricting commission has faltered in its effort to draw new election maps in Virginia.
October 28, 2021 -
Families in resource-starved public school districts have filed lawsuits challenging unequal education funding, and three pending cases in Southern states seek to compel reluctant legislatures to provide more money for poorer districts. Republicans in North Carolina are now discussing impeaching judges who've ordered them to take action.
October 28, 2021 -
Effective climate action should center the priorities of those first and most impacted, write Judy Anne Asman of the Just Transition Alliance and Jonathan Alingu of Central Florida Jobs With Justice. Their groups are leading a delegation of frontline workers and community organizers to participate inside and outside the upcoming 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
October 28, 2021 -
A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by civil rights groups on behalf of several immigrant advocacy organizations working with Cameroonians fleeing violence at home confronts anti-Black racism in the U.S. immigration system.
October 27, 2021 -
After being pressed for decades by environmental health advocates, the EPA recently announced a plan to regulate toxic PFAS chemicals widely used in consumer products, from non-stick cookware to dental floss. But the FDA still hasn't banned the cancer-causing substances from fast-food wrappers and containers, and Southern states have been reluctant to take action on their own.
October 15, 2021 -
The N.C. Court of Appeals recently rejected a request from the Pat McCrory Committee Defense Fund and the law firm Holtzman Vogel to throw out a libel suit filed against them for falsely accusing voters of committing fraud in the 2016 election. After the former Republican governor narrowly lost to Democrat Roy Cooper that year, McCrory's campaign and its legal agents worked to sow doubt about the election's integrity — a strategy taken to new levels by Donald Trump following his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
October 13, 2021 -
North Carolina legislators have appealed a ruling that struck down a 2018 voter ID statute as racially discriminatory. And a lawsuit challenging a related voter ID amendment is at the North Carolina Supreme Court, where two justices are under scrutiny for conflicts of interest in the case.