Ceara Sturgis and her same-sex partner, Emily, have a simple wish: They want their family and friends to attend their commitment ceremony at the Mississippi Agriculture & Forestry Museum. But the state-owned museum’s unlawful policy of refusing to rent its facilities to same-sex couples for commitment and wedding ceremonies threatens to deny that wish.
It was supposed to be a reminder of one of the most special days shared by Brian Edwards and Tom Privitere – their engagement photo. The black-and-white photograph shows the two men kissing with the New York City skyline in the background. The picture was one of several that Edwards posted on his blog to allow friends and family unable to attend the couple’s wedding to share their joy. But what was supposed to be a symbol of the life-long commitment between two people in love was hijacked by an anti-gay hate group.
The Southern Poverty Law Center commended the U.S. State Department today for its changes to rules regulating the department’s J-1 Summer Work Travel Program as a step in the right direction.
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal lawsuit today against the Mississippi Department of Education for failing to ensure that students with disabilities in the Jackson Public School District receive the education and services required by federal law.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), has responded to a complaint filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Legal Aid of North Carolina/Advocates for Children’s Services (ACS) by announcing it will investigate North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System for discrimination against Latino students with Spanish-speaking parents.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and its allies are demanding that Alabama’s attorney general ensure the state adheres to last week’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down most of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law.
It took an opinion from the United States Supreme Court, but this week our nation officially recognized the obvious – children are fundamentally different from adults and our criminal justice system should not lock them up and throw away the key.
For the better part of seven years now, Kansas attorney Kris Kobach has been urging municipalities and states to pass the draconian laws he writes that are aimed at so badly punishing undocumented immigrants that they will “self-deport.” Even as governments went into debt to pay his fees and the cost of defending his dubious statutes, Kobach insisted that if they hung tough, they would win in the end.
Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court is a blow to Arizona’s anti-immigrant law and similar copycat laws that have sprung up in other states. The court’s decision affirms that much about these laws is unconstitutional because many of their provisions are preempted by federal law. The decision also shows the court has significant concerns about the one provision they allowed to stand.
With chronic budget shortfalls, dangerously overcrowded prisons and the nation’s biggest municipal bankruptcy filing, folks here in Alabama have a lot on our minds. But at least we can cross one worry off the list: Thanks to a new and little-noticed state law, our property cannot be confiscated by the United Nations – not, at least, without due process.
