Civil & Human Rights

U.S. Supreme Court considers appeals of DOMA and Caifornia’s Prop. 8

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to wade into historic and controversial territory. The Court is considering 10 petitions for review today regarding same-sex marriage, including the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8. The orders granting or denying certiorari are likely to be announced on Monday.

Tim Goldstein at SCOTUSblog has posted this wonderfully written commentary. History:

At their Conference today, the Justices will consider petitions
raising federal constitutional issues related to same-sex marriage. 
These are the most significant cases these nine Justices have ever
considered, and probably that they will ever decide.

I have never before seen cases that I believed would be discussed two hundred years from now.  Bush v. Gore
and Obamacare were relative pipsqueaks.  The government’s assertion of
the power to prohibit a loving couple to marry, or to refuse to
recognize such a marriage, is profound.  So is the opposite claim that
five Justices can read the federal Constitution to strip the people of
the power to enact the laws governing such a foundational social
institution.

The cases present a profound test of the Justices’ judgment.  The
plaintiffs’ claims are rooted in the fact that these laws rest on an
irrational and invidious hatred, enshrined in law.  On the other hand,
that describes some moral judgments.  The Constitution does not forbid
every inequality, and the people must correct some injustices (even some
grave ones) themselves, legislatively.

The ‘irrelevancy’ of Jon Kyl

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Arizona Republic(an) columnist E.J. Montini nailed it in this post about Senator Obstruction, Jon Kyl, and his bogus ACHIEVE Act. Kyl's irrelevant final act:

What good is introducing a piece of legislation that you KNOW isn’t going to pass while you’re in office?

Because it’s for show.

It makes you look conciliatory. It makes you look statesmanlike.

All the things you should have been doing all those years when you were in office and NOT about to retire.

But that’s how politics works. Not exactly a profile in courage.

Arizona’s
retiring Sen. Jon Kyl and Texas’s retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison
introduced a meaningless piece of legislation that is an alternative to
the Dream Act. Their proposal would offer kids brought illegally into
the country by their parents a chance to remain here, but without a path
to citizenship.

"We
need to have a discussion that is sensible, that is calm," Sen. Kyl is
quoted as saying. "This particular piece of immigration reform seemed a
logical place to begin."

That’s true. We should have a calm, sensible conversation about the Dream Act kids.

We should have had it years ago.

Gov. Brewer sued over order denying driver’s licenses to DREAMERS

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Tenther "states' rights" George Wallace in a dress, Governor Jan Brewer, was sued today by a group of
civil-liberties and immigrant-rights organizations in a class-action
lawsuit challenging the Guv's executive order denying
driver’s licenses to young undocumented immigrants approved for federal
work permits under President Barack Obama’s deferred-action program (DREAM Act-Lite). Brewer sued over migrant license policy:

The lawsuit seeks to
block Arizona Executive Order 2012-06, issued by Jan Brewer after the
federal government implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program, or DACA. The program allows certain undocumented
immigrant youth who came here as children to live and work in the United
States for a renewable period of two years. The lawsuit was filed on
behalf of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, an immigrant youth-led
organization, and five young individuals.

The lawsuit marks
the first legal challenge against a state for denying driver’s licenses
to young undocumented immigrants authorized to live and work temporarily
in the U.S. under the program.

The lawsuit could
affect other states that have also denied driver’s licenses to
non-citizens protected from deportation under the program.

The suit was filed
by the Arizona and national chapters of the American Civil Liberties
Union, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the
National Immigration Law Center. The same groups are involved in an
ongoing civil-rights lawsuit challenging Arizona’s
immigration-enforcement law, Senate Bill 1070.

Analysis & commentary: TUSD deseg plan, MAS, & beyond

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Mas-logoby Pamela Powers Hannley

The first of three public forums on the Tucson Unified School District's (TUSD) proposed desegregation plan took place on Monday night. 

Fellow BfAZ blogger Dave Safier posted a very detailed first-person account of the forum here this morning, and today's Arizona Daily Star's also offered a thorough account that overlaps somewhat with Safier's but also includes other facts. (KGUN 9 video here.)

Safier writes from the viewpoint– as he admits– of commentator who has "expended thousands of words trying to explain the value of the MAS program". The Star reporter gives a newsier account of the meeting and offers some more basic background.

Why a third article? Here, I offer here some history, a broader analysis of the issues, and a call for action. Read more after the jump.

TUSD Unitary Status Plan: Multiple ways to comment (without leaving your house)

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Post-unitary-sm72by Pamela Powers Hannley

Parents, students, teachers, and activists have been abuzz in recent weeks about the new Proposed Desegregation/Unitary Status Plan for Tucson Unified School District (TUSD).

Mexican American Studies (MAS) advocates see the new plan as a potential way to bring back the program that was killed a year ago by the TUSD Governing Board, after it was found by the State of Arizona to be in violation of HB2281 and, therefore, in the opinion of the government… illegal. 

This week, three pulbic forums will be held, and after those meetings, the plan's public review and comment period will end on Nov. 28, 2012. Information about the forums and other ways to comment on the proposed plan (without leaving your house) after the jump.