Author: Leslie Perkins
Photo by Andy Manis/Getty Images. WASHINGTON — Democrats on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday explored how to combat violent threats lodged against election officials, while Republicans questioned why the Department of Justice isn’t doing more to investigate threats against crisis pregnancy centers and Supreme Court justices. During a hearing on protecting election officials, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr. discussed how the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force is prosecuting people who have threatened election officials. To date, the task force has investigated more than 1,000 complaints and has prosecuted five people. The hearing comes as states are…
File photo of President Joe Biden, by Ricardo Lopez/Minnesota Reformer WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will sign an executive order Wednesday that aims to help pregnant patients cover the cost of travel to access abortion health care, a senior administrative official said. The executive order does not protect access to abortion, which was overturned in late June by the conservative majority of the Supreme Court when it struck down the constitutional right to an abortion and left the decision up to states. The White House is limited in what it can do, and the burden has fallen on Congress to…
Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., pictured in a file photo, said state constitutions serve as a check against state legislatures when it comes to voting rights. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.. WASHINGTON — Legal experts on Thursday warned lawmakers on the U.S. House Administration Committee that if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a North Carolina case that embraces a fringe election theory, it would undermine future elections across the country. “To be blunt, it would be extraordinary destabilizing,” said Carolyn Shapiro, a law professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. The committee held the hearing in response to concerns that the…
Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, talks with reporters about the Respect for Marriage Act, on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate appears on track to send President Joe Biden a bill in the coming weeks that would guarantee same-sex and interracial couples can marry, even if the Supreme Court overturns the landmark cases that enshrined those rights. “I think we’re very close,” Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said Tuesday of efforts to get at least 10 GOP senators on board with the House-passed legislation. Sixty senators in the evenly divided Senate…