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In 1996, President Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act, colloquially known as DOMA, which forbids the government to extend benefits to same-sex couples who are legally married in...
The Reform Movement has long supported religious liberty at all levels of American life, from the Supreme Court to the basketball court, and we are pleased to now be joined in this commitment by...
The D.C. Circuit Court refused to give the Texas state legislature the green light for their redistricting plan that would elect the state House of Representatives, Senate and their 36-member House...
This afternoon the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit handed down its decision in Windsor vs. The United States, thereby striking down the "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA) as...
Today, a Pennsylvania judge halted the implementation of Pennsylvania's voter identification law, allowing voters to cast their ballots without IDs on November 6. Rabbi David Saperstein issued a...
Last week, Supreme Court Justices heard oral arguments for and against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), a landmark case of the decade. My colleague Madison covered each day’s...
From 2004 to 2009, Colorado’s sitting governors issued proclamations for a statewide Day of Prayer, to be held the first Thursday of May. The proclamations included biblical passages and a call to...
UPDATE, 2:50 p.m.: Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued a statement that "the Court has sent a clear message today that it is blind to the...
In response to the Supreme Court Decision on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform...
The Supreme Court has spoken. Yes, there is still much to worry about, but for now, the religious community can breathe a sigh of relief....
Immigrant children in the United StatesIn 1975, Texas revised education statutes in a manner that allowed the state to withhold funds for the education of children who did not legally enter the...
She only says a few words, but our friends’ granddaughter Stella has one expression down cold: “Uh-oh.” She says it when she drops a toy on the floor or sees a dog trying to sneak food off the...
The 2010-2011 Supreme Court term ended on Monday with a little less fanfare than usual - for the first time since 2009, a justice did not retire - but no less intrigue to those of us court-watchers...
The Supreme Court is officially back in session as of 10 a.m. today. As The Washington Post puts it, the Supreme Court has "an agenda that both reflects the nation's political landscape and offers...
The summer has been a big month for court challenges to health care reform: In July, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as constitutional, and...
At 7 p.m. next Wednesday, September 21, the state of Georgia will put Troy Davis to death. In 1991, Davis was sent to death row, convicted of the 1989 murder of Savannah, GA, police officer Mark...
On October 5, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The issue at hand is whether a...
Yesterday, the House of Representatives conducted an historic reading of the U.S. Constitution to begin its legislative session. Well...sort of. To be more precise, the House read an abridged...
Senate leaders have brokered a compromise that will limit obstructionist tactics in the Senate while preserving the filibuster as a tool of the minority. In our statement released after the vote,...
The landscape of health care reform advocacy has changed drastically in the last few days. As an advocate and health care consumer, here's what you need to know:...
Although the Senate has confirmed five of President Obama's judicial nominees in the first weeks of the 112th Congress, there are still 99 judicial vacancies in the federal court system. Nearly...
In one of the court's major cases this term, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an 8-1 decision that the First Amendment right of free speech protects the Westboro Baptist Church members who protested...
Join us Tuesday, March 29, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. for a Rally to Stand with the Women of Wal-Mart at the U.S. Supreme Court....
In a sharply divided decision yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled against the women of Wal-Mart (pictured at right) and blocked the progress of their class action lawsuit alleging gender-based...
Anniversaries are often occasions to celebrate, and this week marked the one year anniversary of President Obama's nomination of Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department...
The biggest news coming out of the courts this week was the start of the federal trial on California's Proposition 8. As you will recall, in May of 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that the...
Today marks the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Roe v. Wade. As Friday at the RACBlog is our "Focus on the Courts" day, it is only appropriate that we use this...
Yesterday, in one of the most far-reaching and activist Supreme Court decisions in years, five Justices unraveled campaign finance law, giving corporations and unions more power to influence elect...
The blogosphere was set ablaze in the wake of the State of the Union address on Wednesday evening in which President Obama rebuked the Supreme Court's recent decision in Citizens United v. Federal...
Former Supreme Court Justice O'Connor has made headlines in the past week in the wake of the Citizens United campaign finance case. Her comments are notable both because the recent ruling...
An intense and record-breaking snow storm descended on D.C. this week, halting most official business throughout the city--including within our courts. Court dates and trials were postponed...
Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that "the biggest open secret" in the federal case currently being argued in California challenging Proposition 8 is that the judge who is hearing...
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Lewis v. Chicago, a case considering the statute of limitations to sue an employer for using a hiring test with a disparate impact. This case b...
In October, the RACblog's "Focus on the Court" series highlighted the Supreme Court's grant of the cert petition in Kiyemba v. Obama. As you will remember, this case involved 13 men from the Musli...
Six Catholics, two Jews, and one Protestant serve on the United States Supreme Court. Justice John Paul Stevens, the lone Protestant, who turns 90-years-old on April 20th, is expected to retire in...
It is rare for a Supreme Court Justice to grant a reporter an exclusive interview. In fact, it is rare for a Justice to make any press statements at all. But, Jeffrey Toobin clearly has the ...
As you are contemplating the characteristics and qualities that make a good Justice (and tweeting them with the hashtag #AGoodNom or leaving them as comments on the blog post from earlier this week...
This week, the Union for Reform Judaism signed onto an amicus brief for the upcoming Supreme Court case, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. This case began when the University of California-Hast...
Students in our nation's public schools have a long history of leading the efforts to identify, expand, and secure fundamental rights and liberties. In the latest chapter of this glorious traditio...
This morning, Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he will be retiring from the Supreme Court at the end of the current term. He sent a simple letter, with today's date, to President Obama:
...
This post first appeared on the Washington Post's On Faith section and is republished with permission....
I'm a little behind in my reading, so I just caught the piece in the May 17 NY Times Magazine about the implicit message sent by the fact that the two most recent Supreme Court nominees are both f...
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Very little in the Old Testament is coincidental. The reappearance of words, the choice of names, the span of time – everything can be linked to a greater or deeper theological meaning. This is...
America is in a state of emergency. This time, I’m not talking about Hurricane Sandy, or the fiscal cliff or domestic violence. I’m talking about the state of judicial emergencies that exists in 33...
Any moment now, the United States Supreme Court is going to decide on two cases that involve same-sex marriage. Advocates on both sides of this issue are anxiously awaiting either a moment of...
I often think about how fortunate I am to live in this period of time when social justice for the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) community is advancing at such a rapid pace.
...
For many years, the Orthodox Rabbinate's control over almost all public mikvehs in Israel has ensured the exclusion of anyone who doesn't meet their religious standards. To fulfill the mikveh...
