Jacob G. Hornberger: The Pope was right about Trump

  Referring to GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall along the Southern border to keep out illegal immigrants, Pope Francis declared, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel.”

The Supreme Court vacancy shines a spotlight on the judicial vacancy crisis

  It has been two weeks since the death of a conservative judicial titan: Justice Antonin Scalia. With the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee vowing for the first time in American history to not even consider a president’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, it is possible that the Supreme Court could have just eight members until 2017—well into the Court’s next term. If that happens, many Court observers predict that the justices will split their votes 4-4 on many of the most controversial cases. A tied vote would mean that the lower court rulings stand, even when the lower courts disagree over how to interpret important constitutional rights.

SPLC, others file federal consumer fraud complaint against conversion therapy group

  A Virginia-based group is committing consumer fraud by offering services it claims can convert people from gay to straight – deceptive practices that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) must stop, according to a federal complaint the Southern Poverty Law Center and other civil rights groups filed with the FTC Wednesday.

  The complaint describes how People Can Change (PCC) has offered these services known as “conversion therapy” despite the lack of scientific evidence to support their claims. It urges the FTC to investigate the group under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive acts and practices.

Charles C. Haynes: Justice Scalia’s disastrous decision on religious freedom

  Since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia on Feb. 13, conservative religious and political leaders have lavished praise on the long-serving justice as a champion of religious freedom.

  Alan Spears, head of the Christian advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, hails Scalia as “the most vocal and passionate voice on the Supreme Court for religious freedom.” Sen. Ted Cruz warns, “We are one justice away from a Supreme Court that would undermine the religious liberty of millions of Americans.”

  But surely this is either a case of selective amnesia or wishful thinking.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1498: Jimmie Lee Jackson and the tragedy that was a catalyst for change

  Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old Black man who lived in Perry County, Ala. became a central figure in voting rights history. Some say he went to a nighttime voting rights rally on February 18, 1965 in Marion, Ala. Others say he did not go to the rally but was waiting at Mack’s Café to take his mother and 82-year-old grandfather home. There is no doubt, however, that all three were in Mack’s Café.

  State troopers had busted the head of Jimmie Lee’s grandfather, Cager Lee, and blood was running down his face. Viola Jackson, his daughter, tried to help. A trooper attacked her. Jimmie Lee, who was unarmed, tried to help his mother take the 82-year-old Cager Lee to a doctor. A state trooper shot him twice in the stomach, and he started running. Other state troopers beat him as he ran. There is no doubt that these events were the forerunners of the Bloody Sunday March and the Selma to Montgomery March. There is no doubt that these events were critical catalysts on the road to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Super PACs take center stage in primaries

  As our primary selection day approaches, it appears that we are seeing significant campaign attention from the presidential candidates. The move by the Alabama Legislature to make us an early primary state was a good one.

  As is generally the case, we are seeing negative ads. That is not unusual in politics. The reason that they are employed so often is because they work. Otherwise, the media consultants would not use them. The difference in this year’s presidential contests, however, is who is paying for the ads.

Darrio Melton: Put the personal attacks aside for the primary

  March 1 is right around the corner, and Alabama's primary races are heating up. We've seen contentious rhetoric in the presidential nomination races, but the same tone is trickling down to our local primaries and communities.

  The primary process has produced a lot of negativity, especially with how closely Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders are performing in early states. It's easy to sit back and throw rocks at the super-delegates and talk about "party insiders" when both candidates are campaigning for a job that is, by definition, a "party insider."

  What people might forget is that the Democratic primary is the most democratic that it's ever been, and that speaks volumes about our party and the way that we choose the top of the ticket.

How Congress should respond to the Flint water crisis

  In recent years, a pernicious ideology has taken hold in Michigan and across the country: cut costs and roll back regulations no matter the consequences. Tragically, for the residents of Flint, Michigan, this approach to governance has produced a public health crisis that will affect the lives of thousands of people—especially young children—for decades to come.

This outcome was both foreseeable and preventable.

  In April 2013, the state-appointed emergency manager decided to stop purchasing safe drinking water from Detroit. Their plan was to build a new pipeline to nearby Lake Huron. However, government officials had no plan for how to provide clean water during the three- to four-year construction period. The need for another water source prompted local officials to tap into the heavily polluted Flint River.

Gene Policinski: Getting to the ‘core’ of the Apple-FBI iPhone encryption spat

  Make no mistake – the suddenly-white hot debate over whether or not Apple will create a means for the FBI to “unlock” one of its cell phones is a defining moment in the rollout of the 21st century’s mobile, connected world.

  This Silicon Valley-Washington D.C. face-off raises issues of privacy and national security, of freedom of speech, and even foreign policy considerations with respect to repressive regimes and those governments hoping to track journalists’ sources.

Sarah McBride: The economic cost of overly broad RFRAs

  In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision that brought marriage equality nationwide, dozens of reactionary state legislatures are considering a range of anti-LGBT laws designed to legalize and sanction discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Overly broad state Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, or RFRAs—one of the most common pieces of anti-LGBT legislation—provide wide-ranging exemptions that enable religiously based discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, people and their families.