Nobody wants to see people hurt, businesses burned, or innocent lives disrupted by violence in their communities. But you can’t understand urban unrest in isolation from the violence residents face at the hands of their own government.
Rights & Liberties
Online Voter Registration in Florida Is Now Law, Over Resistance By Gov. Scott and Detzner
Florida must now develop an online voter registration system by October 2017, joining 20 other states that already provide the service. Gov. Scott was reluctant to sign the measure into law.
When Liberal Democracy Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be
The puzzle is not why democracy so often turns out to be illiberal. It is that liberal democracy can ever emerge.
Gov. Reubin Askew, Sallye B. Mathis and Edward Daniel Davis Inducted Into Civil Rights Hall
Reubin Askew was named to the hall of fame in part because of his support for desegregation and his appointments of top black officials, including the first black justice on the Florida Supreme Court.
Fifteen Years For Sex on the Beach? Seriously?
Federal prisons are full of white collar criminals who won’t serve a day over five years, criminals who destroyed companies and bilked citizens out of their life savings. Yet Elissa Alvarez and Jose Caballero face 15 years for “lewd and lascivious” sex on the beach, a ridiculous excess, argues Nancy Smith.
Employers Not Required to Have Defibrillators or CPR-Ready Personnel to Prevent Death, Florida Court Rules
In a case stemming from the fatal heart attack of a CSX railroad employee in Clay County, the 1st District Court of Appeal found CSX not to have been negligent by either lacking defibrillators, not providing CPR training to employees or not responding in time to the incident.
This Latina Liberal Is Not Kidding: Ronald Reagan’s Big Gift to Immigrant Families
As a progressive young Latina from a working-class background, whose parents immigrated to the United States from Mexico without papers, Cecilia Velasco is actually thankful for something Ronald Reagan did.
In a Surprise, U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Florida Ban on Judicial Candidates’ Fundraising
The 5-4 decision, written by Chief Justice Roberts, upholds a ban in a case started by Lanell Williams-Yulee, who in 2009 sent out a mass mailing asking for campaign contributions during her bid for a Hillsborough County judgeship.
The FBI’s Hairy Evidence Sends Floridians to Prison on Unscientific Testimony
At least 42 Floridians have gone to prison on tainted FBI evidence, including one who was executed and as many as nine who remain on death row, after trials in which FBI “experts” gave testimony that the agency concedes to have been unscientific.
As Pro-Choice Republicans See It: Abortion Decisions Don’t Belong on a Legislative Agenda
Doctors and patients, not politicians, should determine the course of medical treatment, even when the treatment is abortion, writes Nancy Smith, a card-carrying member of the Republican Majority for Choice.