Category: Government and Politics

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is filing lawsuits against both BMW and Dollar General over discriminatory hiring practices. In the BMW case, people were asked to reapply for jobs and were subjected to criminal background checks. After failing the background check 88 people were fired, 70 of which were black. Dollar General revoked job offers to two black women after conducting criminal background checks. Continue reading “Employers Can’t Refuse to Hire Felons” →

Today oral arguments in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission were presented to the Supreme Court, which will further examine the constitutionality of campaign finance laws. The case involves an individual who is protesting aggregate caps to campaign contributions. Currently there are two forms of caps: Base limits and Aggregate limits. Base limits are set at a $2,600 cap per election on contributions to individual candidates for federal office. Aggregate limits are currently capped at 48,600 in a two-year election “cycle” for federal office and $74,600 to national political parties, state, and local political parties, and political action committees to total $123,200. Continue reading “Campaign Finance Agued Before the Supreme Court” →

Bradley Manning was found not guilty of aiding the enemy, but he was found guilty of 19 lesser counts against him. He now could face up to 130 years in prison. Five of the charges he was found guilty of were based on the Espionage Act of 1917. When the law was written, however, it was never designed to address the issue of whistleblowers. Continue reading “Bradley Manning Verdict” →

Terrorists are not the only people being watched by government forces in the U.S. Increasingly, both local and federal police are using technologically advanced surveillance techniques in regular law enforcement. New reports show that the D.E.A. not only uses information gathered by the N.S.A.’s terrorism surveillance (among other sources) to bust normal drug criminals, they have been falsifying the origin of their investigations. This raises serious due process concerns if the prosecutor, let alone the defendant, doesn’t even know the truth about the evidence collected. Continue reading “Big Brother and Domestic Law Enforcement” →

With some exceptions, abortion in the U.S. is illegal after the point in the pregnancy in which the fetus becomes “viable”.  Viability means when the fetus has a chance to survive if born at this point, and most doctors put this around 24 weeks (where the fetus has about a 50-50 chance of survival). Does that mean that a 28 week abortion is wrong (90-95% chance of survival), but a 20 week abortion is okay (0% chance of survival)? Two recent stories shed light on this distinction. Continue reading “Abortion: How late is “Late-Term”?” →

A measure in Texas which would have required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital was blocked by a federal judge, Monday. If the law had taken effect, as many as one-third of the abortion clinics in Texas could have been forced to close. The judge ruled that the measure was “without rational basis” and that it placed unacceptable burdens on women seeking abortions. The judge upheld the part of the law that requires doctors to use a particular drug protocol in nonsurgical, medication-induced abortions. Continue reading “Abortion Restriction” →

In the 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed that one day people “will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” much has changed. People are no longer being sprayed with fire hoses, or attacked by police dogs for expressing their political beliefs in America. People are no longer jailed because the color of their skin does not comport with the place they sit on a bus. All citizens have the ability to participate in the electoral process, with black voter participation exceeding white participation in some of the same southern states where Jim Crow once ruled the land. Continue reading “50 Years after the Civil Rights Movement” →

Our government is set up in a way that uses a system of checks and balances in order to make sure that one branch of government does not obtain too much power.  While it is arguable whether each branch of the United States federal government is equal, the integrity of the process in “checking” other branches is essential to preserving our freedoms. Continue reading “Tension Between Branches” →

The United States has not had a budget since President Obama has taken office. This is a historical precedent; no budget has been passed by the Senate and this past year one was not even proposed. That is not to say that no budgets have been proposed. Obama has proposed a budget each year, although three out of four came in past deadline. Additionally, the House of Representatives have proposed and passed budgets in each of the past two years. Continue reading “A Tale of Two Futures” →

Every doctor needs malpractice insurance. Yet 82% of doctors have never had a medical malpractice payment, according to data from the National Practitioner Databank. Furthermore, 6% of doctors have been responsible for 58% of all malpractice payments since 1991. Yet high malpractice insurance premiums are still a burden to the whole of the medical profession. Continue reading “Malpractice Lawsuits and Insurance: Who is Paying Whom?” →