Joshua Field: Creating a federal right to vote

  This week the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, a vital piece of legislation that was widely hailed as the nation’s most effective civil rights law. Shelby County, Alabama, had challenged the law, arguing that it was unconstitutional to require “covered” states and localities with a history of voter discrimination to get permission or “preclearance” from a federal court or the Justice Department before changing voting procedures.

Gene Policinski: Arresting journalists-at-work is a double-negative

  Government surveillance of news media operations ranging from The Associated Press to Fox News has made national headlines for more than month now.

  But there’s an ongoing government-press conflict that also is important in its effect on journalists’ ability to gather news and report to the rest of us, and to the proper role of a free press under the First Amendment.

Cameron Smith: Voting Rights Act’s extraordinary remedy requires modern application

  For decades, the Voting Rights Act has prevented changes to election laws in certain states and jurisdictions until those changes have either been approved by the Department of Justice or upheld in a lawsuit before the United States District Court of the District of Columbia.

  On Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court struck down the formula under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which is used to determine which states and jurisdictions are subject to the Act’s pre-clearance requirements. The Court’s ruling leaves intact the vast majority of the Voting Rights Act, including provisions permitting the federal government to challenge racially discriminatory laws.

Andrew Cray and Crosby Burns: Two victories for marriage equality at the Supreme Court

  Today the Supreme Court delivered two historic rulings impacting the rights of marriage for same-sex couples.

  In Hollingsworth v. Perry, the Supreme Court held that Dennis Hollingsworth, the head of ProtectMarriage.com, did not have the authority to appeal a district court decision striking down California’s Proposition 8. Proposition 8, passed in 2008, stripped thousands of same-sex couples of the right to marry the person they love. Though today’s decision poses a number of questions, it appears that the district court’s order prohibiting the state from enforcing Proposition 8 will stand. This means that marriage equality will once again return to California.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Becoming VOCAL

  Five days before Christmas in 1976 a beautiful, bright Birmingham-Southern coed named Quenette Shehane was going to a convenience store near her home close to the campus in Birmingham. She was making a quick trip to get salad dressing to go with the steaks she and her boyfriend were cooking at his fraternity house. Quenette never made it back. She was kidnapped from the store parking lot. Her body was found the next day.

  After several years of anguish and justice system logjams, Quenette’s murderers were found and finally tried. One was executed nearly 14 years after the crime. Another was sentenced to life in prison and the third was also sentenced to life in prison but without the possibility of parole.

Richard W. Caperton and Daniel J. Weiss: Moving forward on reducing carbon pollution

  “This is the global threat of our time. And for the sake of future generations, our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is too late. That is our job. That is our task. We have to get to work.” – President Barack Obama, June 19, 2013

  President Obama knows that climate change is the defining challenge of our time and his presidency. Early in his administration, he committed to putting the United States on a path to reduce the carbon pollution that causes climate change. This commitment—made in Copenhagen in 2009—is a pledge by the United States to reduce its greenhouse-gas pollution to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. The president took significant actions during his first term to fulfill that promise, and news reports indicate that on Tuesday he will announce the most important step in this effort: reducing carbon pollution from power plants.

Sheldon Richman: National servitude

  To make citizens, we must facilitate the shared experiences that cultivate civic pride and responsibility.

  This should mean a period of full-time national service as a rite of passage for every young American, ages 18 to 28. Such service could be military or civilian. Young adults could choose the Army or Peace Corps, Marine Corps or AmeriCorps, the Navy or VISTA.

  So exhort John Bridgeland and Alan Khazei, co-chairs of the Franklin Project at the Aspen Institute, writing at Politico under the title “National Service Is Key to National Strength.”

Sam Fulwood III: Witness to whiteness

  Nora Howell thinks deeply about what it means to be white in America.

  She’s spent much of her adult life wrestling with terms such as “privilege,” “responsibility,” “fear,” and “opportunity,” as they relate to people and race in this nation. Now, at age 26, she’s surrendered to exploring themes of what whiteness means in her life by making performance-based art and by teaching art in inner-city schools in Baltimore.

Katherine Robertson: Accountability Act provides incentives, tools for failing schools

  The State Superintendent of Education has released the names of 78 Alabama schools that are now designated as ‘failing’ under the Alabama Accountability Act.  Under the Act, students who are enrolled in or assigned to these schools will now have the opportunity to transfer to a non-failing public school or non-public school should they choose to do so. Administrators and instructors who found their schools on the list have understandably expressed displeasure and argue that the school will have a difficult time improving with less student revenue due to transfers.

Charles C. Haynes: Ban on “gruesome images” threatens free speech

  For those of us who worry about the vitality of free speech in the “land of the free,” the news last week wasn’t good.

  On June 10, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a Colorado appeals court decision banning anti-abortion activists from displaying “gruesome images” of mutilated fetuses that might be seen by children.