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Colorado designer does not have to make websites for same-sex couples, Supreme Court rules
Colorado cannot compel a website designer to create custom sites for same-sex couples, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an opinion released Friday. The 6-3 ruling, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, came in 303 Creative v. Elenis. Plaintiff Lorie Smith argued the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, violates her constitutional right to free […]
Gun violence is a proxy war on the American public
As the riot of gun violence in America produces fresh massacres by the day, firearm fundamentalists refuse to acknowledge the blood on their hands, and their suicidal stance in the face of escalating carnage is that more guns are the answer. But it’s worse than that. Take a close look at the arguments that gun […]
Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis censured in Colorado for false election claims
Jenna Ellis, the Colorado attorney who was former President Donald Trump’s senior legal advisor as he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss, has been censured by a Colorado judge for misconduct. The public censure order was signed Wednesday by Presiding Disciplinary Judge Bryon M. Large, who oversees lawyer discipline cases in Colorado. As part of an […]
Democracy haters aren’t going away. They’re digging in.
The midterm elections this month brought widespread failure to election deniers on the ballot. The most toxic of these dishonest Republicans all went down in stinging losses. Losers included: Governor candidate Kari Lake and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem in Arizona. Secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant in Nevada. Governor candidate Tudor Dixon and secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo in Michigan. Governor candidate Doug Mastriano in […]
Their election denier is your election denier
Some states are comparatively isolated from the most damaging influence of democracy haters. California, Washington, Maryland, Delaware, Colorado — they are likely to avoid the misfortune of election deniers in high office in the near future, or they operate with voting laws meant to expand, rather than restrict, voter access. But while such states act […]
Fear of reporters is fear of the truth
In the weeks after he assumed office, former President Donald Trump put reporters in the crosshairs when he labeled them “the enemy of the American people.” He was following the authoritarian playbook, long consulted by the likes of Stalin and Hitler, but it was shocking to see such strongman rhetoric coming from an American leader, […]
The Webb telescope images remind us who we really are
So much of our collective experience as a country these days involves division and strife, but this week we rediscovered our capacity for unity and awe, occasioned by a picture. On Monday, NASA released the first image from the James Webb Space Telescope, a “deep field” photo that captures hundreds of galaxies, each containing roughly 100 […]
Trump is a domestic enemy. Treat him like one.
The hearings of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection have already provided conclusive evidence that the effort to overturn the 2020 election was a conspiracy directed by a corrupt sitting president who knew the effort was based on lies and encouraged violence in pursuit of power. The damning testimony before the committee and […]
The GOP is the gallows party
“I’ve said we need to build more gallows.” Those words were spoken last month by a Republican state senator from Arizona, Wendy Rogers, at a white nationalist rally. The topic was the execution of political enemies. “If we try some of these high-level criminals, convict them and use a newly built set of gallows, it’ll […]
What I learned from watching more than 500 Jan. 6 videos
I recently watched hundreds of videos from the Jan. 6 insurrection. Many of the stark moments from the attack on the U.S. Capitol are well-known — the battle at the west terrace tunnel, the shooting of rioter Ashli Babbitt, the desecration of the Senate chamber. But nothing provides the kind of granular and exhaustive understanding of that day like […]
Jan. 6 succeeded. Here’s what’s next.
If the point of the Jan. 6 insurrection was to establish that a significant portion of the country is done with democracy, it succeeded. The attack on the U.S. Capitol one year ago by violent supporters of former President Donald Trump — whose lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him was the fuel […]