Justice

BY AMANDA MATOS Womanhood is not a monolith, and yet policy makers—and the legislation they champion—treat women as if they are all of one race, class, and sexual identity. While political, public rhetoric around women’s empowerment may rally the masses, it also projects a naïve idea that all women’s experiences are the same. True solidarity […]

BY AMANDA PATARINO The day after the midterm elections, President Trump announced that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was resigning and that Matthew G. Whitaker would become the acting attorney general. Initial outcry focused on the fact that Whitaker would oversee the Mueller investigation, but discussions quickly shifted to the constitutionality of his appointment. While Trump […]

BY JULIUS LIM Videos of the arrest of a 21-year-old black Harvard University student on April 13 have once again drawn attention to the discussion of police brutality. The student, identified as Selorm Ohene, a Ghanaian, was arrested by the Cambridge Police Department (CPD) after the CPD had received reports about a naked man on […]

BY BOB PAYNE “Jim” boards the plane in Denver. After a weekend of high-elevation hiking and brewery IPAs, he’s packed his checked bag with pot brownies, which his wife loves. Home in New Orleans, he drives straight from the airport to his office, the pot brownies still in his bag. The youth nonprofit he works […]

BY ALEXANDER SMITH Gone are the days of American criminals like Al Capone, John Gotti, and Bonnie and Clyde. Recent prosecutorial practices of US regulatory agencies suggest that modern America now confronts an entirely new class of “criminal.” They are listed on national stock exchanges, occupy flashy corporate headquarters, and are run by individuals adorned […]

BY JEN SMITH, WITH CALEB GAYLE AND DAVID FRIEDLAND 24 days ago Terence Crutcher was shot and killed by a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His family grieved their loss in the public eye. CNN wrote an article titled “Why Charlotte exploded and Tulsa Prayed” contrasting the two cities. It ignored lingering historical tensions from […]

BY ART REYES III    January 27, 2016 This post originally appeared at TalkPoverty.org. Growing up in a slew of apartment complexes and trailer parks in and around Flint, Michigan, I developed a peculiar habit. I would stand on the linoleum floor of our kitchen with the telephone pressed against my face, counting. I was counting how long it […]

This post and attached article are written by guest contributor Sophia Antoinette Carrillo, a graduate student at the Harvard Extension School. The Obergefell decision is a case that defines a generation. Marriage equality and LGBTQ rights are poised for a victory untenable for generations past. Just twelve years ago, the Supreme Court of the United […]

BY WILLIAM WERKMEISTER In 2007, I became the crime victim of a drug addict offender. My case involved a “drug court,” a radical new form of justice, known to very few Americans, but financed to a significant extent by our federal, state, and local tax dollars.  Drug courts are specialty criminal dockets that handle substance-abusing, […]