Politics

March 29, 2019 - With the 2020 elections approaching, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering redistricting cases that could profoundly affect the South's electoral landscape — and thus the nation's — for years to come.

March 29, 2019 - Governors in Florida and North Carolina recently appointed Jewish justices to their state supreme courts — a first for North Carolina. Studies have shown that Jewish judges, as well as those who belong to other religious minorities, tend to rule in favor of religious freedom.  

March 28, 2019 - After the state legislature failed to revamp a judicial voting district found to be racially discriminatory, a federal court has picked a technical advisor from California to do the job instead. Will the non-white voters of Terrebonne Parish finally get a fair shot at electing a judge of their choice next year?

March 28, 2019 - In 2001, the U.S. nuclear industry began hyping plans for new commercial reactor construction, which had skidded to a halt after the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear disaster. But utilities' ambitious and expensive plans have fallen apart, leaving ratepayers in some Southern states forking over millions of dollars for nothing.

March 15, 2019 - To promote their anti-regulatory agenda, the billionaire brothers behind the Koch Industries oil and chemical conglomerate have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into schools nationwide. Now a group called UnKoch My Campus is challenging those deals, and co-founder and campaigns director, Samantha Parsons, recently spoke with Facing South about its work.

March 14, 2019 - For the amendment banning sex discrimination by the federal and state governments to be enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, one more state needs to ratify it. Most of the states that haven't ratified the ERA are in the South, but ratification bills were introduced in seven Southern states this year.

March 13, 2019 - In response to Republican voter suppression efforts in the states, congressional Democrats want to restore the Supreme Court-stricken Voting Rights Act provision that required federal preclearance of election changes in places with a history of voter discrimination. Here's how they're proposing to do that and the places that would be covered.