Memorial Corridor at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice (Photo Credit: Soniakapadia, CC 4.0) American Legal News recently received an e-mail from a reader with a request. The reader wanted an update on the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act, a bill that unanimously passed the Senate in December, 2018. It spurred our interest, so ALN … [Read more...]
North Carolina Court Strikes Down Republican Gerrymander
A three-judge panel in North Carolina has struck down that state's existing map of legislative districts, ruling that the maps represented an unacceptable partisan gerrymander designed to systematically advantage Republican candidates. Republican leaders in the state have said that they do not intend to appeal the ruling, meaning that it will … [Read more...]
U.S. Election Systems Need Protecting
The Senate Intelligence Committee released a report in late July 2019 that detailed Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 election by targeting election systems in all 50 states. While the report does not contend that any actual votes were changed, the fact that Russia tried and succeeded in accessing United States election systems is further … [Read more...]
McConnell Blocks Election Security Bills As Analysts Warn of Potential for More Russian Interference
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC 2.0) In his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on July 24, Special Counsel Robert Mueller had the following exchange with Congressman Will Hurd, a Texas … [Read more...]
Democratic House Majority Boasts Productive First 100 Days
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) (Photo Credit: Center for American Progress Action Fund, CC 2.0) New Presidents are obsessed with “The First 100 Days,” a term originally coined during the Franklin Roosevelt administration to refer to the incredibly productive legislative start to Roosevelt's presidency. Political observers have long … [Read more...]
House Democrats Pass Universal Background Checks Legislation
Fulfilling a promise made to survivors of gun violence in 2018, the Democratic majority in the US House of Representatives voted at the end of February to pass The Bipartisan Background Checks Act, the first significant gun control legislation to pass either Congressional chamber in decades. The bill in its current form will not pass the … [Read more...]
Robert Mueller Sends Report on Trump Investigation to Department of Justice
Special counsel Robert Mueller has finished his investigation into Donald J. Trump, the Trump campaign and any connection to Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. The report has been delivered to the Justice Department's Attorney General, William Barr, who was appointed to the position by Trump earlier this year. In … [Read more...]
Congress Eyes Passing of Social Security Expansion
Social Security, which is the term used for the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program, was first introduced to this country in 1935 as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Second New Deal. Today, Social Security is relied on every month by roughly 61 million Americans, but according to the Congressional Budget Office, … [Read more...]
Democrats Push for Mandatory Arbitration Ban
On the last day of February 2019, Democrats in Congress introduced House and Senate bills to prohibit companies in the United States from enforcing mandatory arbitration clauses in employment, consumer, civil rights, and antitrust disputes. The Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act (FAIR) of 2019 is the most recent effort to undo the … [Read more...]
U.S. Senate To Vote Against Trump’s Border Wall Emergency
Reuters reports the US Senate introduced a bipartisan resolution on Thursday to block President Donald Trump's US-Mexico border emergency declaration. The disagreement involving border security and Trump's long-promised wall led to the longest partial US government shutdown in December, and in the end, Trump could not work up enough support for … [Read more...]
