The scheduled May 14 execution of Edward Busby in Texas has drawn scrutiny from advocates and legal experts. They contend Busby, a Black man, is intellectually disabled, a condition that would constitutionally exempt him from capital punishment, a claim supported by expert consensus cited by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP).
Melissa Lucio remains on death row in Cameron County, Texas, nearly four years after her scheduled execution was halted and nearly two years after the state district judge who sentenced her signed a motion to vacate her conviction, due to claims that exonerating evidence was withheld at trial.
Judge Austin Reeve Jackson will review evidence to determine if Robert Roberson should receive a new trial, after his conviction for the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter was based on the now-discredited ‘shaken baby syndrome’ theory.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Texas death row prisoner Rodney Reed, rejecting his latest effort to obtain DNA testing that he argues could prove his innocence.
Undocumented children in Texas face a childhood of fear and hypervigilance, which can impair their cognitive and emotional development, as local police are used as extensions of federal immigration enforcement and the promise of citizenship does not guarantee safety.
Abundance, a book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, argues that many of America’s most damaging crises are the result of deliberate choices that constrain supply, slow delivery and fragment authority, and that to have the future we want, we need to build and invent more of what we need.
The Brennan Center for Justice’s president and CEO, Michael Waldman, warned that the 2026 election will take place in a political system warped by Supreme Court decisions that have encouraged partisan gerrymandering and eroded protections for voters of color.
In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda is criticizing Texas’ near-total abortion ban following the death of 28-year-old mother Tierra Walker, highlighting the growing national crisis of restrictive abortion laws and their impact on maternal health, especially for Black women.
California’s housing growth over the past five years has been among the slowest in the country, contributing to the state’s ongoing affordability crisis, with the typical Californian paying $2,280 a month for housing, 70% above the national average.
The San Francisco Chronicle editorial board has called on California lawmakers to take meaningful action on housing, supporting Senate Bill 79, which would require local governments to approve mid-rise apartment buildings near transit stops, and warning that the state’s reluctance to build more homes threatens its long-term political clout in Washington.
The ACLU is fighting against laws in Arkansas and Texas that require public schools to post the Ten Commandments in every classroom, as well as efforts to incorporate religion into other public school activities, in order to defend the separation of church and state and students’ rights.
A Travis County judge ruled that Carmen Mejia was wrongfully convicted of murder in 2005, bringing her one step closer to freedom after nearly two decades behind bars.
In February 2024, prison officials launched a new group recreation program at the Polunsky Unit, the state’s notoriously strict death row, increasing inmates’ activities outside of solitary confinement and providing them with exercise, television, games, and religious practice.
The US has carried out 25 executions this year, with 60% concentrated in Florida, Texas, and South Carolina, while new death sentences have dropped to near historic lows, reflecting a disconnect between political decisions and public sentiment.
A federal appeals court has blocked Texas Senate Bill 4, a controversial anti-immigration law, reaffirming that immigration enforcement is solely a federal power and not within state jurisdiction.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ruben Gutierrez, a man sentenced to death in Texas, can move forward with a federal civil rights lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state’s DNA testing procedures.
The ACLU of Texas and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas plan to sue over unconstitutional parts of Senate Bill 12, which bans discussions of race, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation in Texas schools and bars teachers from supporting transgender students.
The ACLU is denouncing a controversial Texas bill that bars residents of certain countries from purchasing or leasing property in the state, calling it unconstitutional and discriminatory, and is scheduled to take effect September 1, 2025, if signed into law.
Micheal Singleton, a Black man and father, was tased and arrested at Dallas Love Field Airport after a false accusation of drug possession, and is now seeking justice and accountability from the courts.
The “abundance” camp is calling for building more, deregulating, and unleashing the private sector to solve the housing crisis, but the left argues that this is not enough and that we need to build differently and for different ends, such as expanding the nonprofit and public sectors, taxing vacancy and property hoarding, and using public options for housing finance and construction.