In September 2011, I spent long hours sitting on the beach in Muscat, Oman, with my father-in-law. We’d venture out early and sit wordlessly side-by-side, watching the ocean turn from grey to crystal blue. When words did come, they would mostly be questions—daring glimpses into the future or awkward attempts to come to grips […]

Read more

  Redefining the Dream: The Case for Marriage Equality is David Boies and Ted Olson’s attempt to cast themselves as the driving force behind legalizing gay marriage. The pair write that they hoped their challenge to California’s Proposition 8 would “change the course of history” and serve as a “critical step in the process of […]

Read more

  A predominantly African-American audience filled the chamber on a late June morning as the Senate Judiciary Committee convened for a hearing on a bill that would restore parts of the 1964 Voting Rights Act (VRA). What was arguably the most effective civil-rights legislation ever enacted had been gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court exactly […]

Read more

In a bustling room at the Third Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a group of white and Latino parishioners gathered for a workshop on immigration. They wanted to learn more about the issue. Julio Alvarez, a Mexican immigrant, was there to answer their questions. “Why can’t immigrants just wait in line and move here […]

Read more

  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised to take action that will counter the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision. Thanks to that ruling, big employers may deny birth control coverage to the female employees whose health insurance they must provide. In other words, the court’s conservative majority didn’t just elevate the rights of corporations over […]

Read more