Category «Civil Liberties»

Nearly a Year After Roe’s Demise, Americans’ Views of Abortion Access Increasingly Vary by Where They Live

Pew Report: Nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs ruling overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that had guaranteed a national right to abortion, overall public support for legal abortion remains largely unchanged. However, a growing share of Americans living in states where abortion is prohibited say abortions are hard to obtain in their …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Health Care, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy

Mifepristone is under scrutiny in the courts, but it has been used safely and effectively around the world for decades

Via LLRX – Mifepristone is under scrutiny in the courts, but it has been used safely and effectively around the world for decades – A flurry of court rulings in April 2023 has left the future of the abortion pill mifepristone in question. For now, a U.S. Supreme Court decision on April 21 allows the drug …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research, Medicine, Privacy

Change in Monthly Abortions Since Roe v. Wade Overturned

Data is Beautiful – this statistic is for legal abortions. See also Washingtonian – The Abortion Battle on Virginia’s Border. When Roe fell, an abortion clinic moved from Tennessee to Virginia. Providing care has been complicated, but the staff won’t back down…Bristol is a twin city, half in Tennessee and half in Virginia, bisected by …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Health Care, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy

The Fight for the American Public Library

Bloomberg/City Lab: ” Library boards, school boards and legislatures are becoming battlegrounds in a push to censor books. Communities are fighting back. National Library Week in the US comes amid a period of turmoil for libraries, as efforts to censor books intensify. Visual storyteller Ariel Aberg-Riger explores the threats libraries face, their historical context and …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Brooklyn Public Library Offers Free eCards to Teens Nationwide Facing Book Bans in Local Communities

“Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is launching a new campaign today, titled Books UnBanned, to help teens combat the negative impact of increased censorship and book bans in libraries across the country. For a limited time, young adults ages 13 to 21 nationwide, will be able to apply for a free eCard from BPL, unlocking access …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

The Purpose of Legal Education

Toussaint, Etienne, The Purpose of Legal Education (March 4, 2023). California Law Review, Vol. 111, No. 1, 2023, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4378424 “When President Donald Trump launched an assault on diversity training, critical race theory, and The 1619 Project in September 2020 as “divisive, un-American propaganda,” many law students were presumably confused. After all, law …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Report Censorship

American Library Association: “ALA, established in 1876, has a longstanding commitment to defend intellectual freedom in libraries. Even before the formal adoption of the Library Bill of Rights in 1939, ALA has provided support, guidance, and resources to librarians faced with censorship. Since 1990, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has maintained a database on …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Florida school district bans dozens of books based on proposed bill

Judd at Popular Information: “Schools in Clay County, Florida, are withholding dozens of books from students, citing legislation that has been proposed but not approved by the state legislature or signed into law.  In a spreadsheet published by the Clay County school district listing the status of challenged books, 55 titles were categorized as “Pending …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation, Libraries

Nearly 1,500 books bans implemented in the first half of this school year

The Hill: “Almost 1,500 school book bans were put into place around the U.S. in the first half of the current academic year, according to PEN America. An analysis from the group released Thursday found 1,477 book bans implemented in the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, affecting 874 unique books. The six months …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Legal Research, Libraries

The Global Expansion of Judicial Power

Hirschl, Ran, The Global Expansion of Judicial Power (March 1, 2023). Oxford Handbook of Comparative Judicial Behavior (Lee Epstein, Gunnar Grendstad, Urška Šadl, and Keren Weinshall, eds., Oxford University Press, 2023), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4373693 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4373693 “The global expansion of judicial power is one of the most significant developments in late-20th and early-21st century …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Education, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

Digital Privacy Legislation is Civil Rights Legislation

EFF: “As Congress ponders legislation to reform “big tech,” it must view comprehensive digital privacy legislation as desperately needed civil rights legislation, because data abuses often disproportionately harm communities already bearing the brunt of other inequalities. Harvesting and monetizing personal data whenever anyone uses social media or even vital online services has become ubiquitous, yet …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Cybercrime, Digital Rights, E-Commerce, E-Records, EU Data Protection, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy

The Unbearable White Maleness of AI

Dame Magazine: “We have entered the era of the cute “AI” stunt, and its implications are more immediately disconcerting than the looming specter of a robot apocalypse (and certainly more amusing). The gag goes something like this: A journalist, tasked with covering “artificial intelligence,” asks a computer program to do something for them, such as …

Subjects: AI, Civil Liberties, E-Mail, E-Records, Education, Knowledge Management