florida

September 4, 2019 - A gathering of conservative anti-death penalty activists in New Orleans this month could help shift the debate over capital punishment in Louisiana and across the South.

August 2, 2019 - Though an amendment added to the U.S. constitution during the height of the civil rights movement prohibits poll taxes, many states continue to effectively impose them by requiring people who've completed felony prison sentences to pay fines and fees before they can register to vote.

August 2, 2019 - As the alarming number of murders of transgender people, particularly women of color, mounts, Southern lawmakers have continued to push measures that discriminate against the transgender community. But in North Carolina, a federal judge recently approved a settlement that reverses controversial restrictions on transgender rights.

July 17, 2019 - Religious organizations posing as licensed health facilities, so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" peddle misinformation to discourage people from seeking abortion. Yet some Southern states are funding these fraudulent clinics with taxpayer money — and now the North Carolina legislature wants to give them even more. 

June 21, 2019 - Most of the states still refusing to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act are in the South — and the advocates pressing for expansion there are not giving up.

June 12, 2019 - New evidence from the files of a dead North Carolina gerrymandering expert reveals the Trump administration pushed for the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census to benefit the Republican Party. But the question could lead to an undercount, which would diminish the South's electoral power and cheat it of its fair share of federal funds. 

June 5, 2019 - The Republican-led Georgia ethics commission is investigating the campaign of 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and several groups that focused on mobilizing minority voters. The probe has sparked accusations that the GOP-led commission is inappropriately engaged in partisan politics — and that's neither a new concern for Georgia nor limited to the state.

May 24, 2019 - As the movement for criminal justice reform takes center stage ahead of the 2020 elections, governors and legislators in the South are offering reforms to create a more welcoming reentry process after prison and to restore rights stripped from ex-felons — though progress on that front faces backlash in Florida.