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If officers shot and killed Sean Monterrosa in Connecticut or New York — instead of in Vallejo, California — a state agency would investigate the June 2 incident, when a police officer reportedly mistook a hammer in the 22-year-old Latino man’s sweatshirt for a gun and fired shots through the windshield of his police vehicle. If officers shot and killed Michael Thomas in Georgia — instead of in Lancaster, California — a grand jury could investigate a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy’s claim

Coronavirus has reshaped how Californians live, learn and work in uneven ways. The pandemic has exposed the state’s long-standing digital divide with a significant share of low-income and rural households lacking reliable internet access. And even though employers have quickly adapted to remote work, the opportunity to work from home has not spread evenly across the workforce. Many Latino and Black workers who work in essential fields find themselves taking more risks to stay employed, leading t

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ Iowa's governor decreed Wednesday that most felons in the state may vote starting this fall, ending the state's status as the only place in the country where convicted criminals are denied the franchise forever. Expanding the political rights of people who've been to prison has been a top cause of voting rights groups for years, but the cause has gained fresh

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ With fewer than a hundred days to the presidential election, almost half the states have now altered some normal laws or regulations to make casting a ballot easier and safer in light of the coronavirus. Most of the changes so far, but not all of them, are designed to promote voting by mail — the healthiest way to exercise the franchise this year, but a practic

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ Businesses that finance super PACs could be exploited by foreigners who want to secretly and illegally spend millions to influence American elections, a campaign finance advocacy group warned Wednesday. So long as they disclose their donors, super PACs are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts in support or opposition of candidates for president and Congr

In the wake of Bernie Sanders’ loss of the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, the Left has cried out, as it has in the past, for the creation of a third party. There is some merit to this idea, given that repeated attempts to fashion the Democratic Party into a force for progressive change have failed and likely always will. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The Left has been fooled many more times than once, most recently by the faux progressivism of Barack Obam

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ After a string of recent successes, advocates for improving the fairness of elections and expanding access to voting amid the coronavirus pandemic have suffered three defeats in recent days. The setbacks came in Texas, Arizona and Iowa — all states where the Democrats believe they can score big upsets, at the presidential and congressional levels, if the voting

Lawrence Goldstone is the author of numerous books and articles on Constitutional Law, most recently “On Account of Race: The Supreme Court, White Supremacy, and the Ravaging of African American Voting Rights.”  Find out more at www.lawrencegoldstone.com. ‍ In less than two weeks, Chief Justice John Roberts has delighted liberals and infuriated conservatives by casting the deciding vote in a key abortion ruling, the DACA cases, and what may well have been the deciding vote in LGBTQ civil right

This is a horrific time for our country and a time of deep reflection for me. As a child of the 60’s, it is almost incomprehensible to fathom that we are experiencing a moment that is eerily similar to what I lived through fifty year ago on May 4, 1970. In recent weeks, the brutal murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, in addition to so many others, have shaken our nation to the core. These tragic circumstances make it clear, yet again, that systemic discriminati

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum, and was republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. Straight-ticket voting won't be returning to Texas now that a federal judge has rejected an effort by Democrats to maintain the practice. Allowing Texans to cast one quick vote, in favor of one party's entire slate of candidates, has been allowed for a century and was the way two-thirds of 2018 ballots were cast in the second most populous state. But the Republican-maj