Chilling attack on free speech: NY court issues injunction against resolution opposing Gaza genocide
By Tom Hall A New York state court has issued a restraining order blocking a vote by members of the New York City public defenders’ union opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The order was granted after their employers filed suit to prevent the resolution from being passed. The move is a major
US appeals court guts Voting Rights Act
By Barry Grey On Monday [20], the US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that effectively turns the landmark Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 into a dead letter. In a 2 to 1 ruling, the appeals court, based in St. Louis and overseeing the mid-US states
US Supreme Court papers over rampant corruption with first-ever “Code of Conduct”
By Kevin Reed On Monday [13], the Supreme Court of the United States published, for the first time in its history, a document concerning what it calls “ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct of the Members of the Court.” The code elaborates five fundamental principles called “canons” and is signed
Rashida Tlaib censure vote sets precedent for criminalizing opposition to Gaza genocide
By Patrick Martin The vote by the US House of Representatives to censure Representative Rashida Tlaib (Democrat-Michigan) for her opposition to the Israeli genocide in Gaza is an unprecedented attack on democratic rights. Tlaib, the lone Palestinian-American in the House, is the first representative since the Civil War to be censured
The bond market turmoil: The social implications
By Nick Beams The headline financial news this week, announced on Wednesday afternoon, was the US Federal Reserve decision to maintain interest rates on hold for the second meeting in a row. But a more significant decision came that morning with the move by the US Treasury to slow the pace
Impunity reigns: prosecution dropped in Flint Water Crisis case following SC ruling
By Staff Writer Michigan prosecutors have ended the case against former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and eight others accused of wrongdoing in the Flint water crisis. This comes after Michigan Supreme Court Tuesday (October 31) reaffirmed its December last year decision that a one-man grand jury, which the prosecutors had used
US Fed pauses interest rate hikes amid rising bond yields
By Nick Beams Interest rate payments on US debt will grow as yields rise and budget deficit increases. The US Federal Reserve has paused its interest rate hikes for the second meeting in a row and sent out some mixed signals about whether it will lift rates at its last meeting for
We Can’t Depend on Elections and Legal Battles Alone to Defend Democracy
By Igor Shoikhedbrod |TRUTHOUT Karl Marx warned how easily democratic representation and rights can be lost to the forces of authoritarian reaction. By all accounts, liberalism is in a state of crisis globally. Liberalism finds itself especially under threat in its contemporary “homeland” — the U.S of the post-2016 Trump era, prompting
Another Trump lawyer pleads guilty in Georgia election interference case
By Megan Butler Trump campaign attorney Kenneth Chesebro entered a plea agreement while potential jurors began filling out questionnaires. Kenneth Chesebro, one of the defendants in the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and 17 others accused of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia, accepted a plea deal
Princeton University report: US class-based life expectancy gap widened to more than 8 years
BY Benjamin Mateus The recent report by leading Princeton University economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton (winner of the Nobel Prize in 2015), submitted last month to the fall 2023 edition of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, makes a conscientious account of the widening mortality gap that exists between Americans with and