When Donald Trump won and private prison stocks surged, an unexpected cheer came from downtown Manhattan. It’s a great time to be in the jail business. A new report by the progressive advocacy group In the Public Interest reveals the troubling ties between Wall Street and the private prison industry, including hundreds of millions of […]
Legal Affairs
Posted inLaw and Justice
Roberts Rules for Protecting Corporations
The chief justice’s changes to the rules for litigation make suing big business a whole lot harder.
Posted inLaw and Justice
Race and the Tragedy of Quota-Based Policing
Arrest targets compound the risk of racially biased stop-and-frisk.
Posted inLaw and Justice
Report: Judicial Elections Fuel Anti-LGBT Bias
The chief justice of Alabama’s highest court, who once called lesbian parents “immoral,” “detestable,” and “inherently evil,” has been suspended without pay following his February directive to the state’s probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore’s removal from the bench last month came within a […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Will Black Lives Matter to the Supreme Court?
Three cases provide cues on how the Court may handle race and criminal justice questions that are roiling the country.
Posted inLaw and Justice
As License-Plate Tracking Increases, Privacy Advocates Press for More Regulation
The powerful, largely unregulated technology poses significant privacy and civil liberty risks.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
A New Era for the Supreme Court
The transformative potential of a shift in even one seat
Posted inCivil Rights in America
From a Contentious Election to a Stronger Democracy
Strengthening democracy is the key to all other reforms.
Posted inLaw and Justice
High Court Hears Case Challenging Discriminatory Testimony
A case now being argued before the Supreme Court challenges the constitutionality of supposedly “expert” testimony claiming that race can determine a criminal’s danger to society.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
More Corporations Embrace Disclosure, Despite Conservative Opposition
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is in a standoff with Democrats as he refuses to remove a rider to a short-term funding bill that would prohibit the Securities and Exchange Commission from strengthening political disclosure requirements for corporations. Stopping measures that would shine some light on corporations’ secret political spending is a top priority […]