“Freedom” by Marko Lovric / Pixabay In October 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill meant to ban the use of for-profit, private detention facilities, phasing out existing detention facilities entirely by 2028. Already contested by means of a complaint filed by GEO Group, a private prison management corporation, and a lawsuit filed by…
“Candle and Police Tape” by Tony Webster / Flickr / CC-BY-2.0 On May 5, 2020, the American public gained access to a unique, but also familiar video. Unique in that the name of this victim was Ahmaud Arbery, but familiar in the content depicted, a black man being killed for the sole fact that his…
Photo by jaefrench on Pixabay This article is part of our “Reflecting on COVID-19” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. As COVID-19 tightens its lethal grip on the globe, a palpable tension emerges between the authority of governmental officials in every state in the U.S. who have issued guidelines limiting social interactions to…
This article is part of our “Reflecting on COVID-19” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. In a 2016 article in the American Journal of Law and Medicine, George Annas developed four guiding principles, which he argued could helpfully chart a broad health and human rights response to the spread of…
Photo by Queven on Pixabay This article is part of our “Reflecting on COVID-19” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. Congressman Clay Higgins, representing Louisiana’s Third Congressional District, recently drew attention for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the congressman addressed a letter to Louisiana’s Governor John Bel Edwards…
Photo by Pixabay on Pixabay (CCO) An earlier version of this essay was published here, on Diresom. This article is part of our “Reflecting on COVID-19” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. On February 19, 2020, I received the first of many phone calls from the media about a new…
The Trump administration is promoting new proposed rules on social service partnerships with faith-based organizations under the banner of religious freedom. A closer look, however, reveals that the proposals would actually eliminate certain religious liberty protections for social service beneficiaries, and that none of the Trump administration’s justifications for its actions holds water. To appreciate…
Vijay Vinoth / Pexels In 2019 in early September, the Ethiopian government held an emergency meeting with leaders of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to discuss the ongoing political and religious tension in the country. Since July 2018, thirty churches have been attacked across several regions in Ethiopia. More than half of those churches have burned to the…
Kanye West performing at Lollapalooza in 2011 / Rodrigo Ferrari / Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0 This article is part of our “Race, Religion, and Law” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. In a chain of interrelated events, hip-hop artist Kanye West (referred to here as ‘Kanye’ to avoid confusion with…
“Slave Ship: Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On” by J.M.W. Turner 1840 / Wikimedia/ PD This article is part of our “Race, Religion, and Law” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. This is the the third installment of a three-part series that explores legal, religious, and…