Millions of people took to the streets this year demanding racial justice and an end to racism in policing and the criminal legal system more broadly. On Election Day, voters provided their own stamp of approval by passing ballot measures in red and blue …
I was in the middle of reciting Ya Seen, the 36th chapter of the Quran, when the executioner signaled to me that was enough. It was time to kill Orlando Hall. Across a strip of tape dividing us, Orlando received a shot of lethal injection before I could …
Over the past four years, the Trump administration has gone out of its way to launch attacks on women — including in housing, the workplace, and schools. When President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris take office, their administration and …
The Trump administration’s quest to force abortion patients to needlessly risk COVID-19 exposure as a condition of obtaining care has entered its sixth month, and is as violently out of touch with reality as ever. Following an October order from the …
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is at the heart of some of the greatest moral horrors of the last four years, personified in stories that we cannot forget: the children breathlessly crying for their parents after being separated at the border; the …
The federal government is secretly purchasing and using our cell phone location information to locate and track people in the United States, including for immigration enforcement. We’re suing to bring some much-needed transparency to these disturbing …
Affirmative action recently survived yet another legal attack: Last week, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Harvard’s favor in a long-running case challenging affirmative action. The court rightly upheld a lower court finding that Harvard’s use …
Last year I met with a woman while she was jailed in an immigration detention site near Miami, Florida. She told me about her 5-month-old baby, whom she hadn’t seen in three months. She said that her husband, a U.S. citizen, had been driving her to Walmart …
What is ICE detention? What is it not? Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE — pronounced “ice,” like a cube) detention is civil detention. It is not intended to be punishment for a criminal conviction, though conditions are often as bad or worse than …
This piece originally ran in The New York Review of Books. President Trump is on his way out the door, even if he goes kicking and screaming. The Biden-Harris administration will have its hands full picking up the pieces. Trump has left the federal …
Last spring, as people across the globe raced to shut themselves indoors and shelter away from the threat of COVID-19, meatpacking workers in America suddenly found themselves exposed, vulnerable, and directly at the front line of the disease’s spread. By …
As of now, we know the status of two of the three branches of the federal government. We have President-elect Joe Biden in the executive, and an even more conservative majority in the Supreme Court with the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The …
Trump’s days as president are coming to an end, but his efforts to weaponize the census continue — and could impact our democracy for the next decade. We’re going to the Supreme Court on Nov. 30 to make sure that doesn’t happen. If the census fight feels …
Like pretty much everything in 2020, Trans Day of Remembrance is going to be different this year. It’s going virtual. But one thing that hasn’t changed is that transgender people are still being murdered for being who we are. The list of names keeps …
Each year on Nov. 20, Trans Day of Remembrance (TDOR) gives us an opportunity to remember and honor the trans and non-binary people who have been killed at the hands of transphobic and transmisogynistic violence. In 2020, over 350 trans and non-binary …
In early October, the United States Labor Department reported that women were leaving the workforce at four times the rate of men. A few months earlier, a report from McKinsey Global revealed that while women made up 43 percent of the workforce, they had …
One of the simplest joys of expecting a baby is sharing the news with other people. That wasn’t the case for Steven van Soeren, a product designer for Disney’s streaming service, when his wife became pregnant. “You shouldn’t have a kid,” one Disney …
After four years of attacks on our reproductive rights and health by the Trump administration and the anti-abortion legislators it has emboldened around the country, there is much to repair. When President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris take …
This piece was originally published on Advocate.com. Joe Biden’s election isn’t the end of our struggle for LGBTQ justice, it’s a new beginning. As hopeful as we are that the Biden/Harris administration will live up to its campaign promises to LGBTQ people …
On election night, voters in Boulder, Colorado delivered a critical win in the fight for housing justice. By a margin of 59-41 percent, voters passed No Eviction Without Representation (NEWR) — a critical measure that will ensure all Boulder tenants who …
