Civil & Human Rights

Dealing with the Devil: Should Maricopa County Latinos ‘Play Nice’ with Arpaio? (video)

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

Earlier in February, Maricopa County Latino leaders, organized by Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski, met with Sheriff Joe Arpaio and offered prayers and support– not protest signs or recall petitions.

Should Latinos play nice with Arpaio in hopes of winning him over, or should they work to recall the “toughest sheriff in the US”, stop deportations of hard-working, law-abiding people, and push for immigration reform?

If there is any doubt in your mind that we all should fight back against the racism that Arpaio embodies, check out this video by Dennis Gilman after the jump.

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Violence Against Women Act finally reauthorized

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The media's favorite story line is that Washington, D.C. is dysfunctional and broken and can't get anything done. But the media villagers rarely ever tell you why that is. The reason is the GOP leadership who employ the extra-constitutional "Hastert Rule" (a majority of the majority) in the House, and the extra-constitutional "Cloture Rule" (filibuster) in the Senate. When the GOP leadership waives their abuse of these procedural rules and members are permitted to vote their conscience the way that the Founders intended, work actually does get done in Congress.

Case in point: the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, for the third time this year waived the "Hastert Rule" at the request of 18 House Republican members to allow an up or down vote on renewal of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The VAWA had already passed the Senate on a strongly bipartisan 78 to 22 vote earlier this month.

Today, the VAWA was finally reauthorized. Violence Against Women Act passed by House, sent to Obama for signature – The Washington Post:

The Republican-held U.S. House signed off on a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act that includes expanded protections for same-sex couples Thursday, ending a protracted political fight over the measure and sending the bill to President Obama to sign into law.

NY Times editorial on the Voting Rights Act gets it exactly right

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The New York Times editorial opinion today on the Voting Rights Act gets it exactly right. Congress’s Power to Protect the Vote:

The voter ID laws and other tactics that sprang up in several states last year to prevent minorities from casting their ballots offer incontestable proof of the need for strict voting rights laws.

Yet at the argument on Wednesday in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court’s conservative justices left the ominous impression that they were willing to deny this reality and repudiate Congress’s power to enforce the right to vote by striking down a central provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act requires nine states (seven of them in the South) and parts of seven others with records of extreme discrimination against minority voters to get approval from the Justice Department or a special court in Washington before they can make any changes in how they hold elections. Without this provision, there would be no way to prevent new and devious efforts by local officials to block blacks and Hispanics from voting or to reduce their electoral power. In 2006, Congress overwhelmingly reauthorized the statute. It found that these places should remain “covered” by this “preclearance” requirement because voting discrimination remained both tangible and more concentrated and persistent in them than in other parts of the country. House members from those places strongly supported the renewal: of 110 members from covered jurisdictions, 90 voted for reauthorization. 

Prominent Republicans sign onto amicus brief to overturn California’s Prop. 8

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In other U.S. Supreme Court news on Tuesday, 75 Republicans signed on to an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to make same-sex marriage constitutionally protected in Hollingsworth v. Perry. Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage:

Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress — have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry, a position that amounts to a direct challenge to Speaker John A. Boehner and reflects the civil war in the party since the November election.

The document will be submitted this week to the Supreme Court in support of a suit seeking to strike down Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative barring same-sex marriage, and all similar bans. The court will hear back-to-back arguments next month in that case and another pivotal gay rights case that challenges the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act.

The Proposition 8 case already has a powerful conservative supporter:
Theodore B. Olson, the former solicitor general under Mr. Bush and one
of the suit’s two lead lawyers. The amicus, or friend-of-the-court,
brief is being filed with Mr. Olson’s blessing. It argues, as he does,
that same-sex marriage promotes family values by allowing children of
gay couples to grow up in two-parent homes, and that it advances
conservative values of “limited government and maximizing individual
freedom.”