Blog Posts Archive - Page 171 of 286 - People For the American Way

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January 16, 2014 9:09 pm | By Peter Montgomery

Celebrating Religious Freedom

January 16 is Religious Freedom Day, which commemorates the Virginia General Assembly’s approval of Thomas Jefferson’s historic Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, a precursor to the religious liberty protections in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In this year’s…
January 16, 2014 8:06 pm | By Jake

Students Take Action to Fight Money in Politics

In our continuing efforts to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and related cases and restore Government Of, By, and For the people, PFAW Foundation is helping coordinate the Students United For Democracy coalition – a group of…
January 16, 2014 4:15 pm | By Paul Gordon

The Senate Could Immediately Reduce the Vacancy Rate by a Third

Just a few days into the new session of Congress – with Senate Republicans having forced renominations of more than 50 judicial nominees – the Judiciary Committee has now fully vetted and advanced 29 of those nominees to the full…
January 15, 2014 3:32 pm | By

In Virginia, The Power of Showing Up

In elections, it doesn’t just matter who wins. It also matters how they win: who shows up to vote and why. We’re seeing this yet again in Virginia this week, as Terry McAuliffe kicks off his first term as governor.…
January 15, 2014 2:41 pm | By Paul Gordon

Sen. Burr Invents New Rule to Hide Obstruction of NC Judicial Nominee

North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr (like Marco Rubio before him) is in hot water for obstructing a judicial nominee who he himself had originally recommended to the White House. Burr is refusing to talk about his motives, but in trying…
January 14, 2014 10:59 pm | By Layne Amerikaner

Breaking: Federal Judge Rules Same-Sex Marriage Ban in Oklahoma Unconstitutional

Today a federal judge found Oklahoma’s ban on marriages for same-sex couples to be unconstitutional. While this is great news, same-sex couples are not yet able to marry in the state because the decision is stayed – in other words,…
January 13, 2014 5:25 pm | By Layne Amerikaner

PFAW Foundation Staffer Reacts to Utah Marriage Battle in CNN Op-Ed

It has been a roller-coaster few weeks for marriage equality in Utah, where a legal battle over the state’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples continues and more than a thousand marriages are caught in limbo. On Friday People For…
January 10, 2014 5:00 pm | By Peter Montgomery

On Contraception, Dumbing Down Tyranny

In recent years, conservative evangelical and Catholic activists have made "religious liberty" their culture war rallying cry as well as their primary legal and political strategy. In doing so, they often use irresponsible rhetoric about American Christians being subject to…
January 9, 2014 5:41 pm | By Paul Gordon

Republicans Obstruct Judicial Nominees They Supported Last Year

The Senate Judiciary Committee finally met this morning, only the second business meeting Republicans have allowed to happen since before Thanksgiving. But that doesn't mean the Senate GOP's campaign of petty obstruction is over. Because of the escalated GOP obstruction…
January 8, 2014 7:35 pm | By Miranda Blue

PFAW Writes Letter Supporting Nomination Of Debo Adegbile To Head DOJ Civil Rights Division

This week, People For the American Way sent a letter to every U.S. senator, urging them to confirm Debo Adegbile to head the civil rights division of the Department of Justice. Adegbile’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee was this…
January 7, 2014 7:15 pm | By Paul Gordon

Rubio Should Not Have the Last Word on Florida Nominee

Update (1/8/13): Last night, MSNBC All In host Chris Hayes explored the possible motivation behind Sen. Rubio's obstruction of William Thomas. Watch: Yesterday, we learned that state judge William Thomas's historic nomination for a federal judgeship was dead,…
January 6, 2014 3:38 pm | By Layne Amerikaner

Video: PFAW’s Drew Courtney Discusses Right Wing Extremism on Politics Nation with Al Sharpton

Last Monday, Right Wing Watch reported on an upcoming far-right rally, “Operation American Spring,” calling for the ousting of President Obama. Rally organizer Harry Riley predicts that “millions of Americans will participate” in this mission to “bring down the existing…
December 30, 2013 8:17 pm | By Jamie Raskin

Scalia Predicted It: Equal Rights Means Equal Rights

"It has never yet been discovered how to make a man unknow his knowledge, or unthink his thoughts." –Tom Paine, The Rights of Man "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave…
December 27, 2013 4:33 pm | By

What We Left Behind in 2013

I think we all breathed a sigh of relief this week when Congress finally did what it was supposed to do and passed a basic budget. Although the budget left many behind, this time there were no shutdowns, no debt…
December 24, 2013 1:34 pm | By Ben Betz

Sarah Palin So Clueless About First Amendment Even Fox News Has to Set Her Straight

Sarah Palin has been notorious for propagating distortions of the First Amendment and the meaning of “free speech rights” – essentially, when she or one of her right-wing friends is criticized for some offensive thing they said, in her eyes,…
December 23, 2013 7:11 pm | By Scott

Challenges & Opportunities: 2014 Political Landscape PFAW Telebriefing

On a recent national activist teleconference, pollster Geoff Garin of Hart Research Associates told PFAW supporters that 2014 could see challenging mid-year elections for progressives. Garin said 2013’s rollout difficulties with the Affordable Care Act, Tea Party obstructionism, and sliding…
December 20, 2013 11:33 pm | By Paul Gordon

Senate Republicans Send 55 Judicial Nominations Back to “Go”

As the Senate is winding up its business for the first session of the 113th Congress, Republicans are taking steps to make it harder to get things done during the second session (which starts in 2014). Specifically, they are taking…
December 20, 2013 10:14 pm | By Layne Amerikaner

Breaking: Judge Strikes Down Ban on Same-Sex Marriage in Utah

Adding to this week’s great news on marriage equality, today U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Shelby struck down Utah’s same-sex marriage ban, which was put into the state constitution by referendum in 2004. One of the far right’s standard…
December 20, 2013 3:13 pm | By Marge Baker

Suddenly Senate Republicans Are Worried About ‘Deliberation.’ Give Me a Break.

I can understand why Senate Republicans are angry about the recent change in the Senate’s filibuster rules. It means that their agenda of obstruction just got a lot harder. But all their righteous indignation is ringing hollow. Yesterday, Sen. Chuck…
December 20, 2013 2:56 pm | By Paul Gordon

Six Ways Senate Republicans Are Still Obstructing Judicial Nominations

As we approach the end of the first session of the 113th Congress, it's important to take stock of the toll that Republican obstruction has taken on the Senate's judicial confirmation process. Since President Obama took office, Senate Republicans have…