In California, a law has been passed enabling prisoners who have worked in fire camps while incarcerated to become full-time firefighters after their release. Eligible ex-convicts must be nonviolent offenders. Once they are released, their criminal records will be expunged, allowing them to become firefighters more easily. This bill was... Read More »
Cook County, Illinois, and Massachusetts both have assault weapons bans in place. These bans are based on a national assault weapon ban that expired in 2004 when Congress did not renew it. Cook County enacted its ban in 2007. The Massachusetts ban has been in place since 1998. Cook County’s... Read More »
DACA, which is short for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a program that allows qualifying young immigrants to stay in the country, even though they are undocumented. Former Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, initiated the policy. The Trump Administration's approach toward immigration does not conform with DACA.... Read More »
A whistleblower complaint recently brought to light especially disturbing allegations about the treatment of immigrants at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Ocilla, Georgia. The complaint, filed by a nurse who worked at the facility until a sudden demotion in July, alleges that federal immigration detainees... Read More »
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away Friday evening, September 18, 2020, after serving nearly three decades on the nation’s highest court. Known affectionately as the “Notorious RBG,” she left an immediate wake of grief among her most ardent supporters and ideological opponents alike—but the aftermath of Ginsburg’s... Read More »
New Jersey law requires people looking to get a permit to carry a handgun to have a “justifiable need” to get one. A “justifiable need” is defined as “urgent necessity for self-protection, as evidenced by specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger to the applicant’s life that... Read More »
Recently, California placed a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines. Magazines are considered “high capacity” if they hold more than 10 bullets. However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, repealed this ban because it goes against the 2nd Amendment, which gives Americans the right to own guns.... Read More »
A time before ride-share apps seems like a distant memory, but California law may be steering the state back in that direction this November. Californians will vote on Proposition 22, a ballot measure that will determine whether companies like Uber and Instacart will endure on the West Coast. The App-Based... Read More »
On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue that Montana’s public-funded scholarship program for students to attend private schools cannot exclude religious schools. “A state need not subsidize private education,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the 5-4 majority opinion. “But once... Read More »
If Joe Biden were to secure the presidency, he would face a scene not unlike President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s late-1930s America. The nostalgic similarities have some wondering if a Biden presidency, too, might seek to rework the lifetime-tenured, nine-Justice stalwarts of the U.S. Supreme Court. In the shadow of the... Read More »
Older people are one of the groups that are most vulnerable to COVID-19. In order to protect them from it, many nursing homes have banned visitors from going inside. When family and friends visit their loved ones in nursing homes, they are able to check and make sure that their... Read More »
This year, the U.S. Presidential election contends with a tensely polarized nation and electorate, an ongoing global pandemic, foreign interference, and mail-in voting controversies that threaten to tarnish the shining face of the USPS. The current president has been mentally prepping the country for months—perhaps even years—to expect foul play... Read More »
In order to avoid large groups of people and help slow the spread of COVID-19, churches have been forced to close down and not offer in-person services. Many churches responded with live streams of their services as an alternative. With some states slowly reopening, some churches are now providing in-person... Read More »
With the new school year starting amid the COVID-19 pandemic, states are scrambling to decide the safest way to open schools, whether in person, virtually, or through a hybrid of in-person and virtual instruction. Parents are also struggling with the decision of whether to send their students back to school... Read More »
Presidential elections in the United States use a system referred to as the Electoral College. Under this system, elections are not determined based on which candidate received the most votes, but rather on which candidate secured the largest number of Electoral College votes. Each state is assigned a certain number... Read More »
