Instead of ensuring that voting rights are extended to all Americans, many state legislatures are engaged in efforts to shut out voters in this election year, taking aim at young people, immigrants and minorities.
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Vigilance in the Defense of Liberty and Freedom
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Voting and Racial History
1/26/12Source:The New York Times -
Business, Civil Rights Groups Blast Kline's NCLB Proposal
1/25/12Source:Ed WeekA top GOP lawmaker's plan for rewriting the No Child Left Behind Act amounts to a "rollback" of the law, 38 business, civil rights, and other advocacy organizations said in a letter, sent Jan. 24 to its sponsor.
The draft from U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., chairman of the House education committee, "would thrust us back to an earlier time when states could choose to ignore disparities for children of color, low-income students, English-language learners, and students with disabilities," the letter says.
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Top Civil Rights, Business, Disability and Education Groups Oppose GOP ESEA Draft, Call Proposal 'a Rollback': News of the Day
1/25/12Opposition to Committee Republicans' draft education proposals continues to mount. Nearly 40 organizations – representing a broad cross section of civil rights, disability, business and education organizations – today come out against the draft bills, calling them a “rollback” that “undermines the core American value of equal opportunity of education.”
Referring to the set of Republican proposals, the groups write:
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USA Today: Justices side with death row inmate abandoned by counsel
1/18/12Source:USA TodayThe U.S. Supreme Court ruled by a 7-2 vote Wednesday that an Alabama death row prisoner should not be prevented from appealing because he missed a deadline after his lawyers dropped his case and failed to tell him.
The two lawyers at the New York firm of Sullivan and Cromwell failed to alert Alabama court authorities, so that when a court clerk sent papers to the lawyers, the firm's mailroom returned them unopened marked, "Return to Sender — Left Firm" and "Returned to Sender — Attempted, Unknown." -
LDF Leader Says “Death Should Not Be The Consequence of Someone Having an Inadequate Lawyer”
1/18/12Source:LDFReacting to a Wednesday Supreme Court ruling that restored an Alabama death-row inmates right to appeal his sentence, LDF director John Payton told the Huffington Post that the decision “focuses attention on the larger issue that death should not be the consequence of someone having an inadequate lawyer