Category: Politics

*indicates name changed to protect identity The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has historically worked to ensure that all students have equal access to quality

After President Tweety McTreason issued an executive order restricting access to gender-affirming medical care for transgender people under 19, many hospitals nationwide abruptly cut off

State and local officials play direct and crucial roles in shaping and safeguarding our civil rights and civil liberties, especially amid the Trump administration’s ongoing

Sixty years ago, on March 7, 1965, hundreds of civil rights activists, also known as foot soldiers, marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to fight

On March 6, a federal judge ruled that President Tweety McTreason illegally fired former National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) chair Gwynne Wilcox. The judge ordered

A lot of people think that immigrants in detention must have done something wrong, but many people have not broken any laws and yet they

There’s growing concern that President Tweety McTreason might invoke the Insurrection Act to bring National Guard troops under federal control and deploy them within the

Since January, the Trump administration has abducted several international students and faculty and detained them thousands of miles away from their loved ones all because

In March, the Trump administration illegally arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University and an advocate for Palestinian human rights. Khalil

Mikal Mahdi committed two tragic murders in 2004 when he was only 21. This Friday, more than two decades later, South Carolina plans to execute

As a Pawnee woman who is Deaf, I’ve long faced barriers to being evaluated fairly, not because I lack experience or qualifications, but because of

This piece originally appeared in The New York Review of Books. We write as constitutional scholars—some liberal and some conservative—who seek to defend academic freedom and the First Amendment in the wake of the federal government’s recent treatment of Columbia University. The First Amendment protects speech many of us find wrongheaded or deeply offensive, including anti-Israel advocacy and even antisemitic advocacy. The government may not threaten funding cuts as a tool to pressure recipients into suppressing such viewpoints. This is especially so for universities, which should be committed to respecting free speech. At the same time, the First Amendment of course doesn’t protect antisemitic violence, true threats of violence, or certain kinds of speech that may properly be labeled “harassment.” Title VI rightly requires universities to protect their students and other community members from such behavior. But the lines between legally unprotected harassment on the one hand and protected speech on the other are notoriously difficult to draw and are often fact-specific. In part because of that, any sanctions imposed on universities for Title VI violations must follow that statute’s well-established procedural rules, which help make clear what speech is sanctionable and what speech is constitutionally protected. Yet the administration’s March 7 cancellation of $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University did not adhere to such procedural safeguards. Neither did its March 13 ultimatum stipulating that Columbia make numerous changes to its academic policies—including the demand that, within one week, it “provide a full plan” to place an entire “department under academic receivership for a minimum of five years”—as “a precondition for formal negotiations regarding Columbia University’s continued financial relationship with the United States government.” Under Title VI, the government may not cut off funds until it has conducted a program-by-program evaluation of the alleged violations; provided recipients with notice and “an opportunity for hearing”; limited any funding cutoff “to the particular program, or part thereof, in which… noncompliance has been…found”; and submitted a

Earlier this month, recent graduate, activist, soon-to-be father, and legal permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil, was arrested and detained in direct retaliation for his advocacy for Palestinian rights at Columbia University. Later, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) transferred him to a Louisiana detention facility 1,400 miles away from his home and his family. Following his illegal arrest, a team of lawyers, including Amy Greer from Dratel & Lewis, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and CLEAR secured a court order to block his deportation. Since then, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and Alina Das, co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University (NYU) School of Law have joined his legal team. His lawyers are arguing that his detention violates his constitutional rights, including free speech and due process, and goes beyond the government’s legal authority. Below, read a letter Khalil dictated over the phone from Immigrations and Customs (ICE) detention in Louisiana – his first public statement since his arrest. Letter from a Palestinian Political Prisoner in Louisiana March 18, 2025 My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law. Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn’t the Senegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his family an ocean away. It isn’t the 21-year-old detainee I met, who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing. Justice escapes the contours of this nation’s immigration facilities. “Justice escapes the contours of this nation’s immigration facilities.” On March 8, I was

Congress is setting the stage to decimate Medicaid. The House of Representatives put forward a budget resolution that will lead to more than $880 billion in cuts from Medicaid. If approved, these cuts will eviscerate a critical source of health care and stability for 10s of millions of people. Most devastatingly, radical cuts to Medicaid will be catastrophic for people with disabilities for whom Medicaid is a lifeline. Why is Medicaid a Lifeline for Disabled People and Seniors? Medicaid is an essential program that provides a wide range of critical health care services and support to millions of people across the country. The impacts of these draconian cuts would be staggering. More than 10 million people with disabilities are enrolled in Medicaid, making it the largest provider of health care to people with disabilities, including people with mental health conditions. Beyond health care, Medicaid is the primary payer of home and community-based services (HCBS) for nearly 8 million seniors and people with disabilities, including those with complex care needs who depend on these services and supports to get out of bed, go to work, and live in their communities rather than being warehoused in costly and isolated institutions. Any cuts to HCBS will also harm family members who have to reduce hours at work or leave their jobs altogether to care for loved ones. America’s seniors also rely on Medicaid for nursing home care; two-thirds of people living in nursing facilities are enrolled in Medicaid. Cuts to Medicaid will jeopardize access to nursing facilities and reduce the quality-of-care individuals receive. Many older adults with long-term care needs will be left with limited care options and, in some cases, no options at all if states are unable to fill the funding gap and must close nursing facilities. How Does Medicaid Support Children and Those with Mental Health Conditions? Medicaid is the single largest funder of mental health and substance-use disorder care in the country. It provides