In a major affirmative action case being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, Abigail Fisher, a white graduate of Louisiana State University who was denied admission to the University of Texas, claims discrimination on the basis of race.  Jamilah Lemieux reflects on the issues of affirmative action versus white privilege in Ebony magazine.

Available online at http://www.ebony.com/news-views/affirmative-action-vs-white-privilege-119.

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University just updated its Voting Rights and Laws map which can be accessed at http:// www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/2012_summary_of_voting_law_chang….

JSRI Fellow Alex Mikulich joined signed “On All of Our Shoulders: A Catholic Call to Protect the Endangered Common Good,” along with over 150 Catholic theologians, academics, and ministers concerned for the common good of the nation and the integrity of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.  The statement highlights major principles of Roman Catholic social teaching and their dynamic relationships in order to highlight how their substance may best influence political and policy debates. 

The statement is available here.

How so-called reform laws aim to disenfranchise voters

By Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.

Governors play politics with health of low-income citizens

By Fr. Fred Kammer, S.J.

 Update on Alabama’s Harsh Immigration Enforcement Laws

By Susan Weishar, Ph.D.

The length of time served in prison has increased markedly over the last two decades, according to a new study by Pew’s Public Safety Performance Project. Prisoners released in 2009 served an average of nine additional months in custody, or 36 percent longer, than offenders released in 1990.

Over the past 40 years, criminal justice policy in the U.S. was shaped by the belief that the est way to protect the public was to put more people in prison. Offenders, the reasoning went, should spend longer and longer time behind bars.

As the recession and Federal and state cutbacks hit localities, there is an increasing turn to close local budget gaps by jailing and adding fees on poor people for minor infractions.  As a recent New York Times article explains, this turn to private probation companies and Courts is having an impact on the poor in Alabama, Florida, and Texas, among other states.  

 In 2011 the Obama Administration issued prosecutorial discretion guidance to U.S. immigration officers and announced a nationwide review of court cases of immigrants considered low-priority for removal. This announcement generated great hope that undocumented immigrants who came to this country as young children and undocumented parents with children, seniors, and young adults seeking to complete post-secondary education in the United States would finally have a chance to live and work in the U.S. without fear.

On March 21, 2012, the International Detention Coalition (IDC) launched a global campaign to end the detention of child migrants. Research conducted by IDC revealed that the migration-related detention of children is widespread and growing and that migrant children who become separated from their caregivers are vulnerable to sexual abuse and often lack adequate medical care and education.