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December 11, 2012 6:23 pm | By Miranda Blue
Justice Scalia’s 7 Worst Anti-Gay Statements
On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear two landmark cases on marriage equality. Yesterday, Justice Antonin Scalia reminded us again why gay rights advocates, to put it mildly, aren’t counting on his vote. Scalia is the Supreme Court’s most…
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December 7, 2012 3:45 pm | By Paul Gordon
Pending Judicial Nominations Pile Up
When the lame duck session began last month, the Senate had 19 long-pending judicial nominations waiting for a floor vote. Republicans had been blocking these for months, and after their election defeat, they came back to Washington and … continued…
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December 6, 2012 7:24 pm | By Harrison
UPDATE: Reported Voting Troubles
UPDATE: Shortly after the election, several voting rights advocacy groups released reports or statements detailing problems voters encountered at the polls. Demos put out a report describing how all the various voter suppression tactics affected the 2012 election. The American…
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December 6, 2012 5:58 pm | By Miranda Blue
Still No Explanation From Grassley on Judiciary Committee Delays
This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved five nominees to serve on federal district courts in New York, California and Florida and on the US Court of International Trade. A week ago, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley postponed votes on…
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December 4, 2012 10:19 pm | By Harrison
Restrictions on Early Voting and Voter Registration Used for Partisan Gain
The past two years saw a dramatic rise in states attempting to enact voter suppression, the impact of which was certainly felt on Election Day. Under the guise of combating voter fraud and saving money, we saw strong pushes for…
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December 4, 2012 10:06 pm | By Paul Gordon
More Dissembling from Chuck Grassley
Chuck Grassley, ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, issued a prepared floor statement yesterday with a hailstorm of misleading or irrelevant facts and figures designed to hide one inescapable fact: Senate Republicans have been obstructing President Obama's judicial nominees in…
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December 3, 2012 10:49 pm | By Layne Amerikaner
Far-Right Leaders Still Condemning “Intrinsically Disordered” Gays and Lesbians While The Rest of the Country Moves Forward
It has been hard to keep up with all of the historic wins for marriage equality in the past few months. Three states passed ballot measures in support of marriage equality, and one rejected a state constitutional amendment banning it.…
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November 30, 2012 8:23 pm | By Paul Gordon
Diverse Ways to Block Women Judges
While President Obama continues to nominate qualified men and women who would diversify the federal bench, Senate Republicans have shown their commitment to a different kind of diversity: a diversity of methods to block those nominees: Mitch McConnell spearheads the…
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November 29, 2012 10:56 pm | By Layne Amerikaner
PFAW Supports President Obama’s Call for a Balanced Approach to Fiscal Plan
President Barack Obama posed an important question to families across the country yesterday: what does $2,000 mean to you? In a speech on extending tax cuts for the middle class as the fiscal deadlines approach, President Obama emphasized the importance…
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November 29, 2012 8:59 pm | By Layne Amerikaner
Young People For Got Out the Youth Vote This November
People For the American Way Foundation’s Young People For program was on the ground all across the country these past few months helping young people get out the vote. These efforts paid off: one in two Americans ages 18-29 voted…
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November 29, 2012 8:48 pm | By Paul Gordon
Grassley’s Non-Response on Judicial Nominations
Sen. Chuck Grassley has provided a weak and misleading response to a letter sent yesterday by 16 Iowa and national organizations (including People For the American Way) holding him accountable for a type of obstruction of judicial nominees that he…
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November 29, 2012 8:11 pm | By Harrison
Attempts to Disenfranchise Ohio Voters Continue After Election
A few days before the election, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted ordered local election officials to reject ballots with mistakenly recorded identification information – even though the courts previously issued an order against this. Immediately following the election and…
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November 29, 2012 4:53 pm | By Layne Amerikaner
PFAW Joins Allies at Conference to Fight Money in Politics
Super PACs and corporate lobbyists, beware. Earlier this month, organizations from around the country working to fight back against the influence of big money on our democracy gathered to share ideas and make plans for action. The conference, associated with…
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November 28, 2012 8:58 pm | By Harrison
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Supports LGBT-Inclusive Immigration Reform
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) today released their framework for immigration reform. One Nation: Principles on Immigration Reform and Our Commitment to the American Dream addresses a number of key principles and constituencies. Section 2 explicitly covers bi-national, same-sex couples,…
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November 26, 2012 9:43 pm | By Paul Gordon
GOP Bad Faith on the Pace of Confirmations
Last March, after three years of non-stop partisan obstruction of President Obama's judicial nominees, Senate Majority Harry Reid filed cloture petitions to end the Republicans' unprecedented filibuster of 17 district court nominees. Under public pressure, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell…
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November 21, 2012 6:16 pm | By Calvin Sloan
Pushing Back on Citizens United With Art
The results of a recent PFAW and unPAC produced art contest are in: a panel of experts (including such luminaries as Shepard Fairey, designer of the famous 2008 ‘Hope’ poster and Jesse Dylan, creator of the ‘Yes We Can’ music…
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November 21, 2012 4:06 pm | By Paul Gordon
Florida Federal Judge: We Need More Judges!
The judicial vacancy crisis has gotten so bad in Florida that the chief judge of the Middle District is warning her colleagues that they may soon have fewer active judges than senior judges (older, semi-retired judges often with a reduced…
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November 16, 2012 8:33 pm | By Miranda BlueThis is How Judicial Nominations are Supposed to Work
President Obama will end his second term with more vacancies on the federal courts than there were when he started. Today there are 99 vacancies on the federal circuit and district courts, 33 of which are for courts that are…
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November 16, 2012 3:54 pm | By Layne Amerikaner
A First Swing at Fixing the Broken Election System
If you were casting a ballot in South Carolina last Tuesday, your wait to vote may have been four hours. In Florida, it might have been seven. If you were voting in Hawaii, you may have gone to one of…
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November 15, 2012 4:09 pm | By Miranda Blue
Is That Bryan Fischer or Mitt Romney?
Earlier this week, PFAW’s Right Wing Watch caught this rant by American Family spokesman and all-purpose bigot Bryan Fischer, who declared on his radio program that American Latinos voted Democratic in record numbers this year because “they want big government…