CIVIL RIGHTS POLICIES, ANALYSIS, AND RESOURCES
Latest Civil Rights Posts
Big Tech Companies Announce Halt To Sales of Facial Recognition Technology
Brief #127—Civil Rights
By Rod Maggay
On June 10, 2020 Amazon.com announced that they would implement a one-year moratorium on providing Rekognition to law enforcement agencies. Rekognition is Amazon’s face recognition software that allows a user to scan a crowd of persons and quickly match a photo of a person’s face to a database of people’s face photos
The Qualified Immunity Doctrine Stands In The Way of Real Police Reform
Brief #129—Civil Rights
By Rod Maggay
In 1967 the United States Supreme Court decided the case Pierson v. Ray which decreed for the first time that police officers had “qualified immunity.”
President Trump Engages in Free Speech Fight with Twitter
Brief #36—Economics
By Rod Maggay
on tweets emanating from President Trump’s verified Twitter account. On a May 26, 2020 tweet from the President about perceived mail – in ballot fraud, Twitter for the first time added a link at the bottom of the tweet that said “Get the facts about mail – in ballots” which was preceded by an exclamation mark in an oval. That signaled that there were other facts to the issue that were not mentioned in the President’s tweet
California GOP Wrongly Takes Up Voter Mail Fraud Issue In California Lawsuit
Brief #123—Civil Rights
By Rod Maggay
In April 2020 President Donald J. Trump again claimed that mail – in ballots encouraged cheating and dishonesty with state voting processes. On May 24, 2020 The Republican National Committee and a number of other GOP groups filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of California in an effort to stop California Governor Gavin Newsom’s May 8, 2020 executive order to send all California voters a mail – in ballot for the upcoming November 3, 2020 election.
We Are 16 States Away from Being Able to Have an All Mail-In Presidential Election
Brief #122—Civil Rights
ByRod Maggay
In the United States, an absentee ballot is a voting option that permits a registered voter to receive an official ballot from the state and return the ballot to the state board of elections after he or she has filled it out at a place other than a local polling booth.
President Trump Surpasses President Bush In Number of “Not Qualified” Federal Judicial Nominees
Brief #121—Civil Rights
By Rod Maggay
During Donald Trump’s presidency the American Bar Association (ABA) has rated nine of his nominations to the federal bench as “not qualified.” Six of the nine were nominations for a federal district court while the remaining three were nominations to a federal circuit court of appeals.
How Wisconsin Republicans Tried To Manipulate An Election Primary And Still Ended Up Losing
Brief #120—Civil Rights
By Rod Maggay
On March 24, 2020, at the direction of Governor Tony Evers, Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary – designee Andrea Palmer issued a stay at home order for the residents of Wisconsin to try and slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
California Approves Rules That Could Be Best Model For Courts To Manage COVID-19 Pandemic
Brief #119—Civil Rights
By Rod Maggay
On April 6, 2020 the California Judicial Council approved eleven temporary court rules in response to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The rules are designed to only be temporary and will be used to ensure that California state courts can provide due process and access to justice to citizens while ensuring that citizens and employees of the judicial system are adequately protected from a possible COVID-19 transmission and infection.
DOJ Seeks An Unnecessary Expansion Of Government Powers In Court Proceedings Due To COVID-19
Brief #118—Civil Rights
By Rod Maggay
n March 21, 2020 the Politico website reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) made a request to Congress seeking new emergency powers as a result of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the world.