When Justice Anthony Kennedy announced he would leave the Supreme Court last June, he gave a giant middle finger to millions of gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans who saw the Court slowly begin to respect their humanity. Though Kennedy was very conservative on most issues, he was relatively moderate on gay rights questions, and often joined with the Court’s liberal bloc to vindicate these rights.
Kennedy’s replacement, Brett Kavanaugh, is a much more doctrinaire conser...
politics
Labor unions come out in support of Maine’s Green New Deal
The Maine American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), which represents over 160 local labor unions across the state, announced its support Tuesday for the state’s recently introduced Green New Deal legislation.
This is the first Green New Deal-branded proposal to be backed by an AFL affiliate.
“We face twin crises of skyrocketing inequality and increasing climate instability. Climate change and inequality pose dire threats to w...
The one Supreme Court case most likely to reveal Chief Justice Roberts’ soul
The instant Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement last June, Chief Justice John Roberts became one of the most watched men in America. With Kennedy gone, Roberts now holds the balance of power on a court otherwise split between four Democrats and four Republicans who are even more conservative than the Chief.
And, next Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear a case that is likely to provide the clearest window to date into just how willing the Chief Justice is to politicize ...
Democrats’ strategy for winning in 2020? Policy, and lots of it.
There’s a long, long way to go before the 2020 presidential campaign draws to a close. Early-round primary voting is still nine months away, and the field of Democratic hopefuls stands at nearly two dozen, with even more contenders poised to enter.
And although the average American is far more engrossed in the final season of Game of Thrones than the preliminary jockeying among presidential aspirants, the campaign goes on. And on.
So just how do a swelling numbers of De...
Stephen Miller is mad the administration isn’t moving fast enough to deny immigrants benefits
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller is openly berating top members of the Trump administration for failing to implement “public charge,” a proposed rule change that would deny residency status to immigrants who rely on public benefits.
“You ought to be working on this regulation all day every day,” Miller reportedly shouted during a meeting last month in the White House situation room, according to The New York Times. “It should be the first thought you have when y...
Trump claims he never sought vote to replace Obamacare before 2020 election
Amid blowback from Capitol Hill, President Donald Trump switched gears again Wednesday, suggesting he never wanted Congress to vote to replace the Affordable Care Act until after the 2020 election.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez town hall resets the Green New Deal debate
In a remarkable town hall event with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes last Friday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) reset the entire debate around the Green New Deal.
Since the idea of mobilizing the entire economy to get off fossil fuels first burst into the political consciousness last fall, thanks in large part to Ocasio-Cortez, many aspects of the Green New Deal have been somewhat vague.
For instance, do the other big goals laid out in the Green New Deal, such as universal h...
Two Republican attorneys general just made Trump look like a fool with one crisp paragraph
Last week, over the objections of President Donald Trump’s own attorney general and his own health secretary, the Trump administration announced that it would not defend the Affordable Care Act against a lawsuit that is widely viewed as frivolous. On Monday, the Republican attorneys general of Ohio and Montana joined the chorus of legal experts who oppose Trump’s effort to kill Obamacare by judicial decree, filing an amicus brief arguing that the operative parts of the law shou...