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Jan 23, 2024 | 
brennancenter.org | Gabriella Sanchez |Douglas Keith |Martha Kinsella
A new online portal is making it easier for law students to seek state court clerkships — and, in the long run, it aims to increase diversity on the bench. Court Opportunity Recruitment for All, or CORA, serves as a hub for courts to post and applicants to explore clerkships, externships, and internships within state judicial systems.
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Jan 9, 2024 | 
brennancenter.org | Alicia Bannon |Douglas Keith |Michael Milov-Cordoba |Martha Kinsella
Last November, days after Ohio voters enshrined the right to abortion in the state’s constitution, a group of state legislators said they would not let courts enforce the new provision. Despite the successful ballot measure, they floated a bill that would have stripped Ohio courts of jurisdiction over any case seeking to enforce the new amendment. What’s more, the legislation would have subjected any judge who did so to impeachment proceedings.
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Nov 20, 2023 | 
brennancenter.org | Michael Milov-Cordoba |Douglas Keith |Martha Kinsella
This month, Ohio passed a ballot initiative enshrining the right to an abortion in the state constitution. But the reaction of some state legislators showed disdain for both the will of the people and judicial independence, two concerning trends in statehouses around the country.
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Nov 10, 2023 | 
everand.com | Jacob Carter |Martha Kinsella
This blog post was co-authored by Martha Kinsella, former senior counsel in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law. It was originally published in the blog STAT on November 10, 2023. By Jacob Carter and Martha Kinsella In late August 2017, Hurricane Harvey brought Texas rain that just wouldn’t stop. After four torrential days, 75 people had died, and Houston — America’s largest city — was deep under water.
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Oct 26, 2023 | 
statecourtreport.org | Alicia Bannon |Evan Zoldan |Emily Lau |Martha Kinsella
As the U.S. Supreme Court reconsiders Chevron deference, almost all state courts continue to recognize the importance of agencies’ expertise in policymaking. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear two cases this term about how much deference federal courts should give to the expertise federal agencies have in administering statutory directives — possibly upending a decades-old standard of review established by a unanimous Supreme Court. In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v.
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Oct 11, 2023 | 
brennancenter.org | Douglas Keith |Martha Kinsella
Like many states, Wisconsin elects its supreme court justices. Usually, these races attract little attention outside of the state. But in April, Wisconsin had the most expensive and one of the most closely watched state judicial elections in U.S. history. The liberal candidate, Janet Protasiewicz, eventually secured an 11-point victory, flipping the direction of the state supreme court after 15 years of conservative control.
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Oct 3, 2023 | 
brennancenter.org | Michael Waldman |Dave Roos |Martha Kinsella
You’re reading The Briefing, Michael Waldman’s weekly newsletter. Click here to receive it every week in your inbox. The Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority has pacified the Republican base. The justices overturned Roe v. Wade, struck down long-standing limits on gun possession, and banned affirmative action in college admissions.
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Sep 27, 2023 | 
brennancenter.org | Marcelo Agudo |Martha Kinsella |Jacob Carter |Andrew Rosenberg
With a population that is more than 95 percent Hispanic, the city of Laredo, Texas, has one of the highest proportions of Latino residents in the United States. Another statistic, one that’s not so favorable: Laredo is among the top 20 locations for heightened cancer risk, thanks to a medical sterilization plant emitting a toxic pollutant that increases the risk of leukemia, particularly for children.
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Sep 27, 2023 | 
brennancenter.org | Martha Kinsella |Mira Ortegon |Jacob Carter |Andrew Rosenberg
The Covid-19 pandemic, the biggest public health crisis in more than a century, has underscored the critical role that science plays in government efforts to protect the health and well-being of people across the United States. Research and data — about the pandemic’s severity, appropriate mitigation measures, and long-term solutions to the crisis, such as vaccination campaigns — became central to daily life in a way that many people in this country had never before experienced.
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Sep 27, 2023 | 
brennancenter.org | Jacob Carter |Martha Kinsella |Andrew Rosenberg |Daniel Weiner
This was originally published by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new round of Covid-19 boosters in time for what I’m calling “gross season” – that time of the year when we see an uptick in illnesses including the seasonal flu, R.S.V., and the common cold.
