News & Commentary

This article originally appeared in The New York Review of Books. The 2016-2017 term, which concluded on Monday, opened with eight justices and every expectation that, after Hillar

Abandoning a longstanding constitutional protection for the separation of church and state, the Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that a church must be allowed to participate in a state program that provides direct taxpayer grants to improve school playground surfaces. The decision was very troubling. As we argued in our friend-of-the-court brief in the case, Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, the government should not be funneling public funds directly to churches or other houses of worship, for any reason. Period. Those who support government funding of religion are rejoicing over the ruling, eager to secure public dollars for a variety

Arkansans have plenty of health needs their politicians should address — from the third highest maternal mortality rate in the U.S. to an opioid epidemic. Yet Arkansas politicians have spent their energies blocking a woman's access to abortion care with ever crueler means. Before 2017, Arkansas was already a leader in the campaign to

After the Supreme Court ruled today that it would hear arguments on the Muslim ban that a number of lower courts have ruled against, the president claimed “clear victory.” Hardly. In fact, the court handed the government a sweeping, but not complete, de

The United States Supreme Court just agreed to decide a case about whether a business can refuse to sell commercial goods to a gay couple because of the business owner’s religious beliefs.  A win for the business could gut the nation’s civil rights laws, licensing discrimination not just against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, but against anyone protected by our non-discrimination rules.  In July 2012, Debbie Munn accompani

The defendant in New Jersey v. S.S., charged with sexually assaulting his daughter, was interrogated about the alleged offense for about an hour before he said, “No, that’s all I got to say. That’s it.” But the interrogation continued.  S.S. told the police he was done speaking two more times. Nevertheless, the police officers continued their efforts to coax a confession out of him, telling him that that they knew there was “something you need to get out.” S.S. did what many people do after being questioned for hours, even though he had told them he didn’t

I was born in Corpus Christi and I first came to live in the border town of El Cenizo as a 9-year-old kid. At that time, the place had just incorporated as a town after being a colonia, an informal community without running water or electricity. Most of the people I grew up with were U.S. citizens, like me, but everyone had Mexican roots. The life we lived was “in between”: I put ketchup on my huevos revuel

I was in the room last week when Gov. Jon Bel Edwards signed a package of 10 bills, passing the most aggressive criminal justice reform the state — and possibly the region — has ever seen. “We knew we needed to be bold, and think big, and get smart on crime,” Gov. Edwards said

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union first met Ruthelle Frank in 2011, when the then-84-year-old was fed up with her home state of Wisconsin’s attempts to infringe upon her right to vote. This month, we received the sad news that Ruthelle had passed away at the age of 89. Ruthelle cared deeply about community participation and leading by example. In fact, for 18 y