Civil Rights

WASHINGTON -- The murder conviction and death sentence of a black inmate in Mississippi cannot stand because the trial court failed to recognize a prosecutors efforts to keep blacks off the jury was due at least in part to discriminatory... Read More

WASHINGTON - A House Judiciary subcommittee held the first congressional hearing in more than a decade on whether the federal government should consider compensating the descendants of slaves in the United States. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who became the... Read More

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court tossed an Oregon appeals court ruling against bakers who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The justices' one-sentence order directs appellate judges in Oregon to reconsider the case in light... Read More

WASHINGTON - The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the Trump administration's policy of blocking abortions sought by undocumented pregnant teenagers in federal custody cannot "be squared with Supreme Court precedent." In 2017, the Trump administration adopted a... Read More

North Carolina's Republican-led House on Thursday failed to override Democratic Governor Roy Cooper's veto of a bill that would require doctors to try to preserve the life of an infant born alive during an attempted abortion. To override Cooper's veto... Read More

The Democrat-led House passed legislation Tuesday that would create a path to citizenship for about 2.5 million immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. The bill, which passed by a vote of 237-187, with seven Republicans voting in... Read More

A circuit court judge in St. Louis on Friday stepped in to block Missouri officials from taking away the license of the state's only abortion clinic. The decision by St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer to issue a temporary... Read More

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said Thursday that he will sign a strict new abortion law barring the procedure once a heartbeat is detectable -- a point that comes before many women realize they are pregnant. In a written statement,... Read More

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak signed a sweeping criminal justice reform bill Wednesday that will restore the voting rights of ex-felons, a measure he said will re-enfranchise 77,000 people when it goes into effect on July 1. Sisolak, a Democrat and... Read More

A federal lawsuit filed in Jackson, Mississippi claims the state unlawfully continues to employ a racist provision inserted in its constitution in the 1890s to prevent African Americans from being elected governor or to any other statewide office. In a... Read More

Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge on Friday to block an Alabama law that bans nearly all abortions and makes performing the procedure a felony punishable by up to 99 years in prison. The... Read More

A majority of American voters believe the U.S. Supreme Court was right in 1973 when it ruled in Roe v. Wade that women have a constitutionally-protected right to have an abortion, and most also believe the current generation of justices... Read More

Eight House Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues Friday in voting in favor of legislation banning discrimination against members of the LGBT community. H.R. 5, also known as The Equality Act, was jointly introduced in both the House and the Senate... Read More

The New Democrat Coalition on Wednesday formally endorsed H.R. 5, also known as the Equality Act, which aims to amend the federal Civil Rights Act to bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The coalition, which... Read More

The conservative and liberal justices of the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to be sharply divided over the Trump administration's plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The high court's ruling in the case could affect how many... Read More

On the heels of Congress’ introduction of the Equality Act, a landmark national survey of over 40,000 Americans has found that seven in 10 Americans support nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people. The survey released Tuesday by the nonprofit and nonpartisan... Read More