us supreme court
May 29, 2015 -
This week the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied President Obama's request to lift an injunction on his executive action programs to provide temporary deportation relief to millions of undocumented immigrants. The decision could have short- and long-term political impacts in the South.
May 21, 2015 -
Nine states, four of them in the South, hold judicial elections but don't ban judges from seeking campaign cash from people that could appear before them. Following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Florida case upholding such bans, judicial watchdogs are working to change the law in these outlier states.
April 23, 2015 -
The U.S. Supreme Court sent North Carolina's redistricting challenge back to the state's high court this week, asking it to reconsider whether the legislature relied too heavily on race in drawing voting lines. The decision comes following similar rulings in cases out of Alabama and Virginia, offering hope for an end to racial gerrymandering.
April 20, 2015 -
Super PACS that get nearly all of their money from one donor quadrupled their share of overall fund-raising in 2014.
April 7, 2015 -
The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation has launched a "Southern Voices" oral history project to capture the stories of Southern leaders working for social and economic justice. This installment focuses on voting rights.
March 20, 2015 -
Passed after the infamous "Bloody Sunday" attack on civil rights protesters in Alabama in 1965, the Voting Rights Act successfully blocked hundreds of potentially discriminatory election changes -- until the Supreme Court struck down a key provision in 2013. There's an effort underway in Congress to fix the hobbled law, but what are its chances of passing?
March 20, 2015 -
Fifty years after the Voting Rights Act was introduced in Congress with bipartisan support, House lawmakers are trying to restore a key part of the law that the Supreme Court struck down in 2013. Just one Southern Republican is on board so far: Rep. Carlos Curbelo of South Florida.
