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Hypocrisy and Health: Workplace safety at risk after SCOTUS blocks vaccine mandate for large businesses

By Debbie Kaminer, Professor of Law, Baruch College, CUNY The U.S. Supreme Court on January 13 blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test mandate, which applied to virtually all private companies with 100 of more employees. But it left in place a narrower mandate that requires health care workers at facilities receiving federal funds to get vaccinated. The ruling comes at a time when the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates continues to soar throughout the United States as a result of the omicron variant. The court’s six conservative justices held that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration exceeded its...

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Becoming Unraveled: How a nation that was a beacon of freedom disintegrated from its own brutality

“Conservative” columnists in America are bemoaning how coarse, violent, and Third-World-ish the United States has become in the past 40 years. David Brooks, for example, comes right out and says “America is falling apart at the seams.” In that, he is largely quoting data from Matt Iglesias’ substack newsletter Slow Boring, where he wrote: “You’re seeing more killing, which is a subset of the increase in shooting, which in turn is a subset of the large increase in gun-carrying. But traffic deaths are also up. Unruly passenger incidents on airplanes have surged. Schools report more discipline and student safety...

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Defending Democracy: Senator Tammy Baldwin details attacks on Wisconsin voting rights in Senate speech

U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin spoke on the Senate floor on January 19 in support of passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and Freedom to Vote Act, in order to remove barriers to the ballot box and protect the constitutional right to vote. In a raw and emotional debate, Senators squared off over voting legislation that is vital to protecting American democracy. The issue echoes a previous era when the Senate filibuster was employed by Segregationists to block civil rights legislation. Republican-controlled states have been passing unconstitutional voting laws since disgraced ex-president Trump lost the 2020 election, in...

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One-Party Rule: Why Republicans oppose the foundation of democracy and the freedom to vote

Republicans say they oppose the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act because it is an attempt on the part of Democrats to win elections in the future by “nationalizing” them, taking away the right of states to arrange their laws as they wish. Voting rights legislation is a “partisan power grab,” Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) insists. In fact, there is no constitutional ground for opposing the idea of Congress weighing in on federal elections. The U.S. Constitution establishes that “[t]he Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by...

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Forcing voters from the polls: Senate filibuster blocks urgently needed Federal legislation

U.S. senators have undermined President Joe Biden’s push to defend voting rights against what Democrats have framed as an all-out assault by conservative states targeting racial minorities. Faced with a blockade from Republicans in the upper house complaining of overreach by the federal government, the ruling Democrats were unable to push through the Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act that were passed recently by the House of Representatives. “I am profoundly disappointed that the Senate has failed to stand up for our democracy. I am disappointed – but I am not deterred,” Biden said...

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An injustice ends after 38 years: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue finally extends into Downtown Milwaukee

After nearly four decades, the City of Milwaukee officially recognized the remaining section of 3rd Street into downtown as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, during a street renaming ceremony on his namesake holiday, January 17. Neither the bitter winter temperatures or the Omicron variant of the ongoing pandemic could deter residents of Milwaukee from attending the historic celebration on MLK Day. Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs and Alderman Robert J. Bauman hosted the event along with the Milwaukee Downtown BID 21, and were joined by city and state leaders at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and the former Old...

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