florida

May 11, 2018 - With protests ongoing over the planned Bayou Bridge oil pipeline, the Louisiana legislature advanced a bill this week creating new crimes with stiff penalties for conspiracy to trespass on pipeline property — part of a broader trend of states and the federal government targeting protest actions.

May 10, 2018 - As federal courts have released some school districts from orders requiring desegregation, schools in the South have become more racially segregated than they've been in 50 years. Trump's judicial nominees and his Department of Justice could make things worse.

April 27, 2018 - A federal appeals court recently ruled that Florida can keep its harsh re-enfranchisement system in place. But a November ballot referendum there could lead to reforms, which have also recently come to states including Alabama and Virginia.

April 25, 2018 - The first peer-reviewed study of ads bought on Facebook to influence the 2016 election is renewing calls for Congress to pass the Honest Ads Act, which would close disclosure loopholes for political ads on social media. The stalled bill is opposed by groups including Americans for Prosperity and an anti-regulatory think tank with a connection to Senate leader Mitch McConnell.

April 19, 2018 - A law targeting white-supremacist terrorism is being used to sue a conservative Virginia activist who falsely accused people of voting illegally — the latest example of how the Reconstruction-era statute remains relevant today.

March 29, 2018 - For years, Southern state legislators have tried to defend racial gerrymandering by claiming that it's required by the Voting Rights Act. Now the Trump administration is pointing to the same law to justify a new census question about citizenship.

March 27, 2018 - President Trump is under fire for his campaign's dealings with the controversial data mining and psy ops firm, but he's not the only politician who worked with the company. Other leading beneficiaries have included U.S. senators and representatives from several Southern states.

March 16, 2018 - Data released under the new federal coal ash rule revealed radium contamination of groundwater at many of the utility's coal-fired power plants. But now the Trump administration wants to roll back that rule — including its groundwater monitoring requirements.

March 16, 2018 - Nursing homes and other corporations that do not like being sued are pushing state constitutional amendments to limit damages juries can award — the latest move in a long corporate-funded campaign to limit access to civil justice. 

February 14, 2018 - The news that North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest solicited millions of dollars from a Durham businessman for supposedly "independent" political groups highlights loopholes in state campaign finance law that need to be closed.