The views of second-generation immigrants

Pew immigrantImmigrants are in the news with the last election catapulting them into prominence as people began to realize that they are a significant voting bloc and are projected to grow larger as a percentage of the population. The Pew research organization released on Thursday the results of a survey they have done on the views of second-generation Hispanics and Asians as compared to their parents and there are hopeful signs for how social views will evolve in the future. [Read more…]

This man is a threat to the world order

While some of us are appalled at the trend of US president’s arrogating to themselves increasing powers so that they approach that of imperial leaders, with president Obama’s preposterous claim of having the legal authority to murder anyone anywhere in the world being the most extreme manifestation of this tendency, there is a country whose leader is moving in the opposite direction. [Read more…]

Differential treatment of churches and other nonprofits

For nonbelievers like me, one of the most irritating aspects of the US tax system is the tax-exemption given to churches under the section of the code known as 501(c)(3) that is meant to provide tax relief for organizations that improve the general welfare. This topic has been discussed before in the context of whether churches that overtly take political stands should continue to receive that benefit and I concluded that it was unlikely that the IRS or the courts would eliminate it. [Read more…]

Bathrooms as the frontier in equal rights

Janson Wu is a staff lawyer with GLAD (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders) who last year won the David Carliner Public Interest Award given by the American Constitution Society for his work for equality. He played a key role in persuading the New Hampshire legislature to pass marriage equality legislation in 2010 and more recently worked with a 12-year old trangender girl named Nicole Maines in beating back an attempt to create an exemption to Maine’s anti-discrimination laws that, if passed, would require trangender people to use the bathroom that matched their sex at birth. [Read more…]