A Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation has revealed that Louisiana prisons and jails routinely incarcerate inmates well past their release dates. This practice is in violation of inmates’ 14th Amendment rights, and it’s costing state taxpayers an estimated $2.5 million each year. The DOJ has been investigating Louisiana’s well-documented habit of keeping inmates detained past their […]
A man has filed suit against the town of Grand Isle, Louisiana,* claiming he was repeatedly ticketed, detained, and even criminally charged for flying two flags reading “FUCK JOE BIDEN” on his pickup truck. According to the lawsuit, filed Tuesday by Ross Brunet, his flags were protected by the First Amendment. “In violation of long-established […]
Arizona is halting executions pending a review of the state’s death penalty procedures. The pause comes in the wake of a series of botched and mishandled executions—a pattern going back more than a decade. “It’s time to address the fact that this is a system that needs better oversight on numerous fronts,” Democratic Gov. Katie […]
A new class-action lawsuit alleges that the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) knowingly allowed hundreds of children to be wrongfully incarcerated in juvenile jail. According to the suit, the agency failed to find appropriate placements for the children, leaving them incarcerated for as long as 240 days after a judge ordered their […]
Arizona’s newly sworn-in governor has repeatedly said that she wants to reverse the state’s expansion of its school-choice program, arguing that Arizona should instead increase funding to public schools. But the program seems safe for now. In July, Arizona expanded its Education Savings Account (ESA) system, creating the largest school choice program in the nation. […]
Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court made a startling change to the state’s execution procedures. Instead of requiring that executions occur during a specific date, the governor will now have the sole authority to set a “time frame” during which executions can be carried out. The change is unprecedented in the United States. While the […]
A recently published survey asked respondents to rank their K-12 educational priorities. The results were startling: Americans rank preparing students for college near the bottom of the list. This wasn’t always the case. Before the pandemic, college preparation ranked 10th in a list of 57 possible priorities. Now, it ranks 47th. This shift appears to be […]
On Tuesday, legislators in North Dakota began considering a bill that would ban “sexually explicit” material from public libraries in the state—and levy up to 30 days of imprisonment for those who refuse to comply with the law. The bill has already drawn the ire of civil liberties groups, who point out its blatantly unconstitutional […]
Hamline University, a liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota, has come under fire in recent weeks after it refused to renew the contract of an adjunct professor who had shown images of the Prophet Muhammad in an art history class. Now the professor at the center of the controversy is suing, alleging religious discrimination […]
In December, Richard Blodgett’s 9-year-old son, Jakob, was taken into Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) custody. Two weeks later, Jakob had died of complications stemming from diabetes. The incident, which is now under investigation by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, highlights the dangers children face when they are taken into state care. “They couldn’t […]