constitution

COMMENTARY
ACLU Executive Director Holly Dickson speaks against Senate Bill 43. At left is bill sponsor Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R-Branch). (Photo by John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)

Arkansas’ would-be religious tyrants gather steam with ‘culture-war’ bills

BY: - January 23, 2023

I grew up Catholic in a deeply Catholic region of Louisiana. I don’t think I met any non-Catholics until after second grade. Imagine my surprise when I realized that not only were there Christians who worshiped differently from me but believed in a totally different Jesus. Imagine my consternation when I learned that some Christians […]

COMMENTARY
Members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol hold their last public meeting in the Canon House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Dec. 19, 2022, in Washington, D.C. The voted to refer criminal charges to the Justice Department. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

What the criminal referral of Trump means

BY: - December 20, 2022

After 18 months investigating, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol held its final public meeting on Dec. 19, 2022. The panel recommended that the U.S. Department of Justice bring criminal charges against former President Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. […]

Former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, left, and Allison Riggs, co-executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, right, in front of the Supreme Court Dec. 7, 2022, after arguments in a pivotal North Carolina case dealing with election law. (Photo by Kira Lerner/States Newsroom)

Future of U.S. election law at stake as Supreme Court hears North Carolina case

BY: and - December 7, 2022

WASHINGTON — North Carolina Republicans appeared to have at least three of the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative justices on their side Wednesday in a case that could determine the future of elections nationwide and leave decisions about federal elections in the hands of state legislatures and beyond the reach of state courts.  The Supreme Court […]

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer with Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, at the U.S. Capitol for a press conference Dec. 7, 2022, on Democrats' victory in the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff race. (Photo by Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom).

‘Worth the wait’: U.S. Senate Democrats celebrate a 51-seat majority with Georgia win

BY: - December 7, 2022

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer jubilantly announced Wednesday that the Georgia runoff election victory will next year end an evenly divided U.S. Senate, giving Democrats more subpoena power in committees and a quicker turnaround in approving federal and judicial appointments. Schumer, a New York Democrat, congratulated Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock for […]

Hillary Clinton in a blue blazer sitting in a gray chair speaking into a microphone while Angie Maxwell in a fuchsia top sits in a gray chair besides her

Democracy “absolutely” will survive, Hillary Clinton says in exchange at Crystal Bridges

BY: - November 30, 2022

Finding a place for trusted, accurate information is one of the biggest problems facing our democracy, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a sold-out crowd at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville Wednesday evening.  It’s “a dagger at the heart of democracy” and there’s no easy answer for how to solve […]

A voter makes his choices in at a New Orleans Garden District polling place on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)

The story behind why Louisiana voted against a ban on slavery

BY: - November 17, 2022

Last week, Louisiana voters struck down an amendment to its constitution that would have prohibited  slavery and involuntary servitude. The four other states where slavery was on the ballot – Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont – approved similar referenda. . Louisiana was put in the national spotlight for rejecting the change. Trevor Noah did an […]

Voters will decide recreational marijuana amendment, Arkansas high court rules

BY: - September 22, 2022

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that voters can decide in November whether to make recreational marijuana legal in the state. In a 20-page decision written by Justice Robin Wynne, the high court concluded 5-2 “that the ballot title at issue is complete enough to convey an intelligible idea of the scope and import of […]