A Quarter of All State Supreme Courts Have Never Had a Justice of Color
Chris Ryan/Getty State courts hear 95 percent of cases filed in the United States, setting sweeping legal precedents that influence generations. “The [courts] touch virtually every aspect of our lives,” says Alicia Bannon, managing director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. But unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the people whose hands those…
The Courts Won’t End Gerrymandering. Eric Holder Has a Plan to Fix It Without Them.
On a frigid March morning, Eric Holder strode into a brick union hall on the west side of Milwaukee, across from a credit union and an auto body shop. The Merrill Park neighborhood was once the center of the city’s Irish political machine, filled with stately Victorian houses—including the childhood home of Spencer Tracy—but it…
California Is Considering Ending Criminal Court Fees and Wiping Out Billions in Debt
Susann Prautsch/Getty Three years ago, during Brandon Greene’s first week working as a lawyer in a new clinic affiliated with the East Bay Community Law Center, he was handed a stack of cases to review. Each involved a client who was struggling to pay down the fines and fees that easily accumulate in California’s criminal justice system. It was his job…
Elizabeth Warren Just Unveiled a Plan to Close the Racial Wealth Gap
Jack Kurtz/Zuma Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a plan Friday to close the racial wealth gap by issuing $7 billion in grants to entrepreneurs of color. The grants could be used for startup capital to support an estimated 100,000 new minority-owned businesses, potentially creating 1.1 million jobs. “Every American should have a fair shot at…
“Beyond My Pay Grade”: When Pete Buttigieg Had a Chance to Stand Firm on Abortion Rights, He Dodged
Mother Jones illustration; Getty; Zuma Mayor Pete Buttigieg was keeping a low profile. It was last spring, and he was in the middle of deliberating what he would later call “one of the hardest decisions” he’s had to make during his tenure in South Bend, Indiana. An abortion clinic—which was hoping to offer service to…
Can a Prosecutor Ever Truly Be Progressive? Ferguson May Be the Ultimate Test Case.
Credit: Mother Jones; Jeff Roberson/AP On the night Wesley Bell unseated longtime St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch, Kayla Reed celebrated a progressive electoral victory and a personal promise fulfilled. Reed has been protesting and organizing in the St. Louis area ever since Darren Wilson, a white cop, shot Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old, in…