Justice

September 16, 2013 - A new report documents an overall rise in homicides in states that have passed versions of the controversial self-defense law. The increase in "justifiable" homicides has been especially dramatic in some Southern states, and African Americans have borne the brunt of the increase in deadly violence.

September 11, 2013 - Plaintiffs suing over North Carolina's controversial new elections law have notified the Civitas Institute -- a conservative think tank founded and largely funded by Republican mega-donor Art Pope, now state budget director -- to preserve documents and other records related to the legislation.

September 11, 2013 - After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, Florida Gov. Rick Scott began planning to reinstate a voter purge program that had been challenged under the law. But his scheme to use a federal database of immigrant welfare benefits is drawing legal fire from advocacy groups that say it will discourage recently naturalized citizens from exercising their voting rights.

September 5, 2013 - Inspired by the Moral Monday movement, students across North Carolina are organizing a college tour to raise awareness around election protection, planning a march on the governor's mansion to protest attacks on voting, and launching a group to protect voters from intimidation at the polls.

September 3, 2013 - In a decision that holds important implications for student voting rights statewide, the N.C. State Board of Elections overruled a local elections board that barred Montravias King -- a student at historically black Elizabeth City State University -- from running for local office because he registered to vote at his campus dormitory.

August 30, 2013 - After a decade of efforts to end prison rape, formal audits of prisons and jails are set to take place. But the first round will be conducted by the Virginia-based American Correctional Association -- the very organization that's been criticized for failing to address the problem.

August 29, 2013 - If we're going to claim New Orleans has made progress since the unnatural disaster of Katrina eight years ago, perhaps we should first define what we mean by "progress."