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Go to church or go to jail. That’s the unfathomable choice that a parole officer gave our client, Mark Janny, after he was released from a Colorado prison in 2014. When Mr. Janny, an atheist, refused to attend worship services at the Christian mission where his parole officer had ordered him to live, the officer revoked his parole and sent him back to jail for another five months. Last week, a federal appeals court rebuked the parole officer and affirmed one of our most fundamental and enduring constitutional commands: The government cannot punish you for refusing to pray. C

Every four years, the Olympic Games showcase the best of the best. Athletes defy odds, break records, and achieve unimaginable feats. But this year, the games have consistently made headlines for the wrong reasons, particularly for the mistreatment and discrimination of Black women athletes. From Sha’Carri Richardson’s pre-Olympic suspension for smoking legal marijuana to the International Swimming Federation’s ban on swim caps designed for natural Black hair, Black women are the

Last fall, we sued the Federal Bureau of Prisons and other federal agencies demanding the release of critical information about their failed response to COVID-19 in federal jails and prisons. After a year of stonewalling, the documents slowly trickling in are frightening: desperate pleas from on-the-ground staff to their supervisors about incarcerated people and staff dying. In one instance, after months of radio silence from supervisors, an employee at the Yazoo City federal prison in Mississippi wrote: L

Still wet from the river and held outdoors under the Anzalduas International Bridge overnight, the mother of a 6 year old pleaded with Border Patrol agents to help her sick child and others. “They’re not going to die,” replied one agent, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times. B

The assault on the practice and ideology known as Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been a wildly successful propaganda campaign. As of this week, 27 state legislatures and 165 national and local organizations have made efforts to restrict education on racism. But what exactly is CRT, and is it really commonplace in K-12 curriculum, as the right makes it out to be? And why does reckoning with the history of racial oppression elicit such profound censorship from those that typically tout support for free speech? T

During Donald Trump’s presidency, our country repeatedly suffered his administration’s attacks on the First Amendment, including freedom of the press. Now, the Biden administration Department of Justice is quietly taking up the Trump mantle to fight free press, free speech, and government transparency in court. T

On July 12, Texas House Democrats headed to Washington D.C. in a last resort attempt to deny Republicans the quorum they needed to pass restrictive voting measures during a special legislative session. The Democratic exodus not only stalled the GOP-led election bills, it also delayed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s longer agenda for this special session, including legislation to ban transgender youth in sports, further limit access to reproductive healthcare, and dictate how U.S. race history is taught in schools. T

The single action of a governor or president can reset people’s lives and send them on a journey of liberation and healing. This should be done more often in every state.

This piece was first published in TechCrunch. M