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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Legal Experts: How U.S. Supreme Court's Ruling on ‘Reverse Discrimination' Will Make Things Worse For Black Americans
After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a 'reverse discrimination' claim, Black Americans are left wondering how this new precedent will impact them. The court's decision came down on Thursday (June 5), adding to the growing list of the judges' past controversial decisions on civil and social liberties. A woman named Marlean Ames is suing her employer in Ohio after she alleged she was passed up on a promotion because she is a straight woman, according to BBC. Instead, her gay boss hired another gay employee for the job, which Ames claims was a clear act of gender discrimination. Several lower level courts didn't agree with her. That's when she took things to the highest court in the land, who ultimately ruled with an unanimous vote. The Root spoke to Marc Brown, founding attorney at Marc Brown law Firm, who said 'the floodgates have been let open' for discrimination cases of all kinds. In a country where anti-DEI legislation and other attacks to Black history and education has become the norm, the court's ruling is a 'rolling back of some protections that the Supreme Court previously made available for minorities– people that have been subjected to centuries of discrimination,' Brown said. 'But it doesn't mean that she [Ames] wins.' The Supreme Court ruled on the principle of the Constitution, not Ames' case itself. She still must present her case in a lower level court. Regardless, it's not lost on Brown the future implications of such a decision. 'There will likely be a heavy increase of these reverse discrimination lawsuits,' Brown continued. For him, this ruling emphasizes a trend started by majority groups. 'I've noticed over the years, whenever the majority feels threatened or upset, new terms are created.' The term 'reverse discrimination' was in direct retaliation to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. 'When you look at the historical systemic inequalities over the years or centuries, you know there is no way that minorities are in the power to really discriminate against these individuals,' Brown added. For anyone paying attention to the conservative-led Supreme Court recent history, Ames decision is one of the many giving legs to right-wing agendas. Whether it's reversing Roe v. Wade or Affirmative action in schools back in 2023, the Justices — three of whom were hand picked by President Donald Trump — have made their position clear. But according to Stacey Marques, ESQ, Black Americans shouldn't panic. 'What I tell my sons is the same thing I tell myself: Make sure you bring your A-game to everything that you have the opportunity to work on,' she said. The mother of two also knows the challenges of being Black in America, and she warned Black folks to get prepared. 'With this anti-DEI climate that we're in — also this climate that is encouraging reverse discrimination lawsuits, it's gonna require the younger generation to adopt the ideals as well as the work ethic of the older generation in order to not only survive but to excel,' she added. Marques has been practicing for 25 years, and she said the ruling only adds more to the already full plates of lawyers nationwide. 'Lawyers are so busy now because there's so many things happening,' she said referring to Trump's blitz of pending lawsuits and court decisions. 'We are in a constitutional crisis.' continued to 11 years 'Anytime the Supreme Court speaks, everyone listens.' '
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tommy Tuberville, ex-UC football coach, announces 2026 campaign for Alabama governor
WASHINGTON – Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville is running for governor of Alabama in 2026, the former Auburn University football coach and close ally of President Donald Trump announced on May 27. Tuberville has served in the Senate since 2021. Before entering politics, he was a longtime college football coach best known for leading Auburn from 1999 to 2008 and is known by many in the Senate as "Coach." Tuberville coached the University of Cincinnati football team from 2013-16, where he compiled a 29-22 career record, including a shared AAC championship in 2014. "Coach Tuberville for governor," reads the 70-year old conservative lawmaker's new campaign website, which features a comment from Trump calling the candidate "a great champion and man of courage." "A few years ago, I decided to give back to this great country and fight. President Trump was a guy that was really behind me in doing the Senate race, he's been behind me ever since," Tuberville said on Fox News, "and today I will announce that I will be the future governor of the great state of Alabama." Tuberville said he will spend his next several months in the Senate ensuring Congress passes Trump's sweeping tax and policy bill. As governor, he said, he will bring manufacturing to the state, improve education, curb illegal immigration and "do everything possible" to ensure kids who graduate in Alabama stay to start their careers. Tuberville has aligned himself closely with Trump throughout his political career. He is the first official GOP candidate to launch a campaign to succeed Gov. Kay Ivey, who can't run again because of term limits. The Republican primary is expected to be more competitive than the general election in this deeply Republican state. Tuberville previously beat former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the 2020 GOP Senate primary, who ran to reclaim the seat he held in the upper chamber for 20 years before leaving to join Trump's first-term Cabinet. Trump forced Sessions to resign from leading the Justice Department after he decided to recuse himself from the federal inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The president then endorsed Tuberville for the Senate seat and repeatedly blasted Sessions on social media during the Alabama campaign. In 2023, Tuberville blocked hundreds of military promotions in the Senate to protest a Biden-era Department of Defense policy – issued in 2022 after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – that gave service members time off and paid for travel necessary to receive abortions. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville to run for governor in 2026
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Editorial: In Florida, denying access to abortion — again
Florida's harsh restrictions on abortion just took a turn for the worse. Last week, a state appeals court struck down a safety net created to protect pregnant teenagers who want an abortion — but are afraid or otherwise reluctant to seek their parents' consent. The decision was strange, from several perspectives. But the bottom line is this: Instead of simply upholding a trial court's ruling that denied the girl (identified as 'Jane Doe') an abortion, a three-judge panel of the Fifth District Court of Appeals brewed up a bizarre legal theory that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees parents the right to exercise 'care, custody and control' of their children. Oddly enough, those words — or any mention of parental rights — appear nowhere in the 14th Amendment, which is also known as the 'Due Process' amendment. This may seem like a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo, but it has serious implications: The appellate judges stripped away a major provision of Florida's parental consent law — one that many believe was essential to passing the law in the first place. Certainly, most underage girls should have the support and consent of their parents when contemplating such a drastic action. But the court ignored the grim reality that some teens have good reason to fear telling their parents they are pregnant and why. It could be incest, abuse or family alienation. For those girls, the law allows them to seek permission from a circuit judge to terminate a pregnancy without their parents' knowledge. It's not an easy case to make. Girls must prove that they are mature enough to make the decision, and explain why they don't want their parents notified. Last year, only 130 teens petitioned for abortion access. Courts granted 121 of those petitions — including some filed in the state's most conservative counties. Voters clearly understood the need for a safety valve when they approved an amendment that wrote the parental notification law into the state Constitution. This decision is a travesty. Parents now have more rights over a child's body in Florida than an adult woman has over her own body. The judges rationalized that any special consideration for minors ended when the U.S. Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade and the Florida Supreme Court followed suit. It's doubtful that Florida's high court, stacked with anti-abortion justices, would overturn this terrible decision. But an appeal could go up to the U.S. Supreme Court, because the decision invoked the U.S. Constitution. We hope the justices there have more respect for Florida's law than the state officials who are sworn to uphold it. And that leads to the last disturbing wrinkle in this case — the role played by James Uthmeier, recently appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis as the replacement for former Attorney General Ashley Moody. Under Florida law, Uthmeier is charged with defending state statutes and its constitution. Why, then, was he arguing for the judicial workaround to be declared unconstitutional — despite the fact that it was literally enshrined in the Florida Constitution? He has not responded to the Sun Sentinel as to why. The legal briefs and other documents in the case are sealed unless a judge releases them. Floridians also lack a good explanation for an earlier appellate-court ruling, this one heard by the First District Court of Appeal, that appears to lay the groundwork for the decision released last week. The First District panel inventively said it could not accept jurisdiction of that teen's appeal because the law provided no opportunity for anyone to argue against her. Judge Bradford Thomas wrote that if the court had jurisdiction, it should nullify the judicial bypass law. It was a cue to other courts, DeSantis and the attorney general. The Fifth District seized on it, and set a course of jaw-dropping judicial activism. The attorneys for 'Jane Doe' should appeal last week's decision, though any further rulings will probably be too late for the teen in question. But it could mean the world for desperate girls who need protection — protection that the state Legislature and the voters of Florida have guaranteed them, and that should not be casually tossed away. The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Executive Editor Roger Simmons, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant, Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman. Send letters to insight@
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Still Has An Anti-Abortion Agenda, It's Just Sneakier Than Before
It's hard to keep track of the damage President Donald Trump has done in his first 100 days in office, from unlawfully deporting migrants andsome U.S. citizens and declaring a war on transgender children to dismantling federal agencies and imposing tariffs that cratered the stock market. But one dark fear has not yet been realized: an aggressive push to effectively outlaw abortion nationwide. There was widespread concern in 2024 — based on the positions of many people in Trump's orbit — that his administration might start enforcing the centuries-old Comstock Act or have the Food and Drug Administration pull approval for abortion drugs. While that hasn't come to pass, the Trump administration has chipped away at choice in less visible ways and done substantial damage to federal reproductive health services. Not too long ago, Trump was an unapologetic anti-abortion advocate who pandered often to his evangelical far-right base. He openly celebrated his role in repealing 50 years of federal abortion protections, telling Fox News that 'it's a beautiful thing to watch' states ban abortion. But once it became clear that abortion bans are inherently unpopular, Trump shied away from his record: softening his rhetoric around reproductive rights, waffling on a national abortion ban and peddling his lie that 'everyone' wanted Roe v. Wade repealed. Since winning the presidential election, Trump has continued this stance of purported moderation. But he still has an anti-abortion agenda — his administration has just gotten better at hiding it. 'The administration wants you to think that they are not paying attention to repro and that abortion is an issue left to the states … but that is completely untrue,' Ianthe Metzger, senior director of advocacy communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told HuffPost. In his first week as president, Trump reinstated the 'global gag rule,' a policy that restricts abortion access around the world and hinders sexual and reproductive health access for many rural communities in developing nations. He signed an executive order to enforce the Hyde Amendment, a 50-year-old federal rule that bans the use of government funds for most abortions for people covered by Medicaid. And those were just the policy decisions generally expected of a Republican administration. Others have been more extraordinary — undermining decades of political precedent and quietly targeting abortion as well as basic reproductive health care like birth control and sexually transmitted infection prevention and testing. The administration is also working to 'change the culture' around family and childbirth. But instead of subsidizing child care or mandating paid parental leave, the White House is entertaining pro-natalist policy ideas, a few of which were once usedby the Nazis. One policy idea floated to the White House included awarding the 'National Medal of Motherhood' to any woman who has six or more children. In Nazi Germany, women were awarded a bronze medal for having four children, silver for six and gold for eight children. Days into his presidency, Trump made an unprecedented move when he limited enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act — a federal law created to safeguard abortion clinics, patients and providers. He dismissed a handful of current ongoing investigations and pardoned 23 people for FACE convictions, effectively declaring open season on already vulnerable abortion clinics, patients and workers. He also rejoined the Geneva Consensus, an extreme global anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQIA pact created during the first Trump administration that aligns the U.S. with socially conservative countries, some of which have been accused of rampant human rights violations. Trump, along with billionaire Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, dismantled the Department of Health and Human Services. These cuts have gutted critical expert teams that monitored in vitro fertilization, tracked national maternal and infant health outcomes, as well as published key contraceptive guidelines for physicians. The cuts also pulled funding from gender-based research, including one study grant meant to protect pregnant women from domestic violence. One Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team laid off in the larger DOGE cuts tracked maternal complications like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, all of which can have lifelong health consequences for women and their children. The elimination of this team means losing the only source of data about the health and behavior of women before, during and shortly after pregnancy. 'Health will likely get worse, and you may not even know it. We won't see the effects until it's too late,' one former official in the CDC's reproductive health division told HuffPost earlier this month. One of the most alarming moves that will have significant consequences is Trump's decision to cut $65.8 million in family planning grants under Title X, a federal program dedicated to providing family-planning services for free or discounted prices to about 4 million low-income Americans every year. Title X has helped fund around 4,000 health clinics, supplying nearly 3 million low-income Americans in 2023 with reproductive health care including birth control, STI testing and cancer screenings. Despite GOP rhetoric, Title X funding cannot go toward abortions — meaning the Trump administration simply took away general health care for millions of Americans. The news flew under the radar, likely because many people don't understand what Title X is, and there has been a great deal of chaos in Trump's first 100 days. But the funding cut has already significantly hindered operations at health centers across the country, including Planned Parenthood, an organization that is historically one of the largest Title X providers. At least six Planned Parenthood health centers have already shut down due to the Title X cuts the administration announced just last month. 'Abortion really was just the beginning,' said Metzger from Planned Parenthood. 'An attack on Title X is an attack on birth control — that is what that program was funded for … None of these things are safe, they are all interconnected.' Recently, the Trump administration joined a Supreme Court case alongside South Carolina, arguing that states should be allowed to exclude Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs, even for health care services outside of abortion care. Similar to Title X funding cuts, this move would effectively defund Planned Parenthood, a long-held GOP goal. The Trump administration's unusual decision to join the case shows just how far they're willing to go to decimate abortion access as well as birth control, STI testing and other vital reproductive health care. One of the main focuses of Trump's first 100 days in office has been attacking LGBTQIA communities, specifically transgender kids in women's sports. And while some may not realize it, attacks on the trans community and attacks on reproductive justice are inherently linked. Trump's anti-trans executive order contained 'personhood' language, used often by extremist anti-abortion groups that believe life begins at conception and fetuses should have the same legal rights as born children. If fetal personhood ever became law, it would immediately create a total abortion ban and criminalize IVF, stem cell research and even some forms of birth control. Trump has also lined his cabinet with abortion opponents, creating one of the most extreme anti-choice administrations in history. Attorney General Pam Bondiinstructed the Department of Justice to dismiss a high-profile federal lawsuit over the right to emergency abortion care in Idaho — sending a clear message that the administration would rather pregnant women continue dying than offer safe abortion and miscarriage care. The federal law at the center of the suit, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, requires hospitals that participate in Medicare (the majority of hospitals in the country) to offer abortion care if it's necessary to stabilize the health of a pregnant patient while they're experiencing a medical emergency. The person in Trump's administration in charge of enforcing that law is Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former TV personality who is openlyanti-abortion and believes abortion decisions should be between 'a woman, her doctors and her local political leaders.' Now that the lawsuit is dismissed, the Trump administration has the ability to rewrite federal EMTALA guidance, which would follow the far-right Project 2025 playbook perfectly. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is responsible for gutting several HHS agencies as well as cutting Title X funding. Trump tasked him with studying the safety of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortion, despite over two decades of safe and effective use by millions of Americans. Many of the HHS agencies Kennedy decimated were also the ones that would have studied mifepristone. Kennedy himself could pull FDA approval of mifepristone, or FDA Commissioner Martin Makary could. The former Fox News contributor routinely spread anti-abortion misinformation before Trump made him head of the FDA. During Makary's confirmation hearing, he refused to answer questions about his plans for mifepristone. Legal challenges to reproductive freedom are sure to continue as the abortion opposition has only been emboldened since Trump took office. This means there will be more Supreme Court battles over abortion care — a frightening fact given the high court's conservative majority and that John Sauer, well-known for his dogged opposition to abortion and birth control access, was recently confirmed as solicitor general, a position sometimes referred to as the 'tenth justice.' 'President Trump has spent these first 100 days making it more dangerous to be pregnant in the United States, stacking every wing of his administration with anti-abortion extremists ready and willing to do his bidding,' Shannon Russell, federal policy counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told reporters in a Monday press call. 'Individually, these officials have great power,' Russell said. 'Together, they'll do long-lasting damage to our democracy and threaten people's reproductive freedoms.' 'We're Sitting Ducks': Abortion Providers Brace For Violence After Trump Limits Clinic Protections The Trump Administration Has Launched A War On Kids Trump Is Filling His White House With Men Accused Of Sexual Misconduct
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Infamous late-term abortionist who wrote about 'dismembering' babies closes Colorado clinic
Famed late-term abortionist Dr. Warren Hern, long a target of pro-life protests, closed his Boulder clinic this week after 50 years, saying it's time to pass on the "sacred commitment" of providing safe abortions to others. "It has been a privilege to do this work for almost 55 years," Hern said in a statement on his website. "It has been a privilege to know the many exceptional people in this field who were and are devoted to the highest standards of medical care for women and who are dedicated to the fundamental principle of reproductive freedom for everyone." Hern, who has detailed the gruesome procedure of "dismembering" fetuses during third-trimester abortions in his writings, said that although he loves his work, he has "wanted for years to be free from the operating room and the daily cares of a private medical practice." Defund 'Big Abortion' Industry That Thrived Under Biden, 150 Pro-life Groups Urge Congress "When I have a patient, I can't do anything else. Her safety and well-being is my priority. Nothing else matters while her life is at stake," he wrote. Hern added that performing abortions has given him and his colleagues "great satisfaction and meaning in our lives." Read On The Fox News App Hern's clinic, the Boulder Abortion Clinic in Colorado, was one of the few that offered late-term abortions nationwide, even prior to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Hern would see visitors from all over the country. Colorado is one of nine states that has no restrictions on when abortions can take place in the course of the pregnancy. In his book, "Abortion Practice," first published in 1984, Hern describes abortions in detail, including how "A long curved Mayo scissors may be necessary to decapitate and dismember the fetus." Doge Must 'Defund' Planned Parenthood, Mike Pence's Watchdog Group Urges Musk "The procedure changes significantly at 21 weeks because the fetal tissues become much more cohesive and difficult to dismember," Hern wrote. "This problem is accentuated by the fact that the fetal pelvis may be as much as 5cm in width. The calvaria [head] is no longer the principal problem; it can be collapsed. Other structures, such as the pelvis, present more difficulty." Hern has been a dominating voice for late-term abortions since the 1970s. He was featured in prominent media outlets over the decades, including The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The Atlantic, among others. Hern also wrote a memoir recently, "Abortion in the Age of Unreason: A Doctor's Account of Caring for Women Before and After Roe v. Wade." Hern writes in that memoir about how, in the early days of his clinic, he had to personally prove that abortions were being conducted safely. Following a dilation-and-evacuation procedure, he would have to "empty the cotton sock in the suction bottle of its contents, spread the tissue out on a glass plate, and look at it carefully over a light box" to show that no parts of the baby were left inside the woman, The New Yorker reported in a 2024 profile of Hern. Feds Gave $700M To Planned Parenthood During Year Of Record Abortions In his interview with The New Yorker, Hern also said that after the decision to reverse Roe v. Wade, the clinic was flooded with patients – and it would prioritize the late-term pregnancies over the earlier ones. "We couldn't see patients who were earlier in their pregnancies, because we were just too busy taking care of the more difficult patients. We have seen some earlier patients now, but our special interest is in helping women who are having abortions later in pregnancy because they have the most difficult circumstances. They're at the end of the line. They can't find anyone else to do this," he said. Later in the interview, Hern said, "The basic fact is that if you're pregnant, you're at risk of dying from that pregnancy," and "All abortions are elective, and all abortions are therapeutic."Original article source: Infamous late-term abortionist who wrote about 'dismembering' babies closes Colorado clinic
