Brief #142 – Health & Gender Policy
By Geoffrey Small
The abortion battle in the U.S. justice system continues months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade. Major federal, state, and city lawsuits are unfolding across the country, potentially setting legal precedents that will determine the future of reproductive rights.
Brief #146 – Environmental Policy
By Todd J. Broadman
The Colorado River, a water source that irrigates 5 million acres of farm land and supplies 40 million people with drinking water, has long been severely overallocated. For decades, so much water has been diverted to supply farms and cities that the river’s delta in Mexico has dried up. Those that depend on its bounty are now in crisis as the western U.S. has undergone a 23-year megadrought and the nation’s largest reservoirs have subsequently dropped their water levels by three-quarters.
Brief #64 – Technology Policy
By Maureen Darby-Serson
Last month, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay the families of the Sandy Hook massacre over $49 million in damages for spreading false claims that the mass shooting was a hoax. He was forced to pay to a group of parents that sued him and to an individual parent that sued him separately. And this is just one recent instance of a conspiracy theorist being forced to face the music after making hurtful claims about individuals or events.
Brief #156 – Health & Gender Policy
By Stephen Thomas
Striving to be proactive in reinstating abortion rights that the U.S. Supreme Court curtailed June 24, the administration of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Kamala D. Harris is taking steps to safeguard a right that the high court established in Roe v. Wade in 1973.
Brief #144 – Environment Policy
By Todd J. Broadman
The recent SCOTUS decision in the West Virginia vs. EPA case, though not unexpected, is further support for a clear ideological direction underway at the Court. The case was brought by several Attorney Generals along with mining industry plaintiffs from major coal producing states. The 6-to-3 decision in favor of the plaintiffs applies directly to the EPA’s authority to regulate the carbon emissions of power plants under the (Obama) 2015 Clean Power Plan.
Brief #189 – Civil Rights
By Rodney A. Maggay
Petitioners David and Amy Carson and Troy and Angela Nelson are two couples that reside in Maine. Both families wanted to apply for Maine’s tuition assistance program in order to send their children to two separate “sectarian” schools. Both families were denied because Maine had previously determined that using state taxpayer funds to fund tuition for students at sectarian schools was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Brief #37 – Elections & Politics
By Stephen Thomas
As of this writing, none of the five members of the Proud Boys who received two additional Capitol riot charges June 6 have pleaded guilty. The group faces nine charges in all in connection with the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The case is before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Brief #137 – Economic Policy
By Stephen Thomas
There is an adage which, simply put, means that if a deal appears too good to be true, then it probably is. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has seen so many consumers misled by so-called deceptive earnings claims that the agency is developing a regulation to crackdown on the practice. The solution is composed of two phases.
Brief #149 – Health & Gender
By Anora Morton, J.D.
On December 1, 2021, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the bombshell abortion case originating in Mississippi, was argued in front of the highest court of the land. On May 2, 2022, a legitimate draft of the Supreme Court opinion indicating the Court’s intent to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to the press. Today we await Wombsday – the day the Court officially repeals all abortion right precedent.
Brief #142 – Environmental Policy
By Stephen Thomas
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced in Washington May 5, 2022, a multifaceted program in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency to protect and improve the environment and address climate change.
The effort is consistent with an executive order that President Joseph R. Biden Jr. issued Jan. 27, 2021.