News & Commentary

Walking is a lot of things. It’s great exercise. It’s a cost-free mode of transportation. But for Black people in Jacksonville, Florida, evidence suggests that it’s leading to discriminatory encounters with police. Black pedestrians in Jacksonville are ticketed a stunning three times as often for p

In 2006, Cyntoia Brown was sentenced to life in prison for shooting and killing a 43-year-old man who had picked her up for sex. At the time of the crime, she was 16 years old. Cyntoia is now in her 20s, and her appeal is pe

They just can’t win. Since taking office, President Donald

This week, the FBI and the Justice Department opened investigations into the conduct of St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers for unconstitutional actions during protests in September. The federal investigation is just the latest in a string of actions by courts and community leaders to hold the St. Louis police accountable for its systemic abuses of power. The federal investigation centers on allegations of civil rights violations by law enforcement officers when the community e

On Monday night, the attempt by the town of Portland, Tennessee, to ban drag shows came to an end. For months, the town’s aldermen have been searching for a way to regulate drag shows out of existence. But the First Amendment got in their way. It all started in August, when performers with Elite Productions put on a drag show at Envy Rest

This piece originally appeared at The New York Review of Books.  When David Mullins and Charlie Craig walked into Masterpiece Cakeshop, a

Even if your school district isn't as deeply troubled as the East Ramapo Central School District in the Lower Hudson Valley, it might very well be suffering from the same Voting Rights Act violation. East Ramapo is a racially diverse district -- a little less than half of the residents in the district

For today’s journalists, cellphones are mobile newsrooms that go where a reporter goes. They’re used to contact sources, record interviews, write notes and articles, take photos and videos, share work on social media, follow breaking news, and more. So when the government can access — without a warrant — cellphone location records that could be used

Families in Louisville, Kentucky, are rightly calling for an end to police in schools following the recent assault on two Black students perpetrated by law enforcement at a local high school that was caught on camera. Before the video begins, two students at Jeffersontown High School were said to have bee