June, 23 2022, 01:23pm EDT
Lawyers' Committee Issues Statement Following SCOTUS Decision on New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen
Today, Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, released this statement following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen:
WASHINGTON
Today, Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, released this statement following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen:
"At a time when we have more guns than people in this country, and when gun violence and mass shootings are at historic and horrific levels, the Supreme Court has now kneecapped efforts to get this problem under control.
Gun violence disproportionately leads to the deaths of people of color, with Black Americans ten times more likely than white Americans to die from gun violence. Given the fact that hate crimes targeting Black and Asian Americans have also jumped in recent years, continued loosening of gun laws is especially alarming. On the heels of a string of horrific mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde, Dallas, Tulsa and Laguna Woods, all of which devastated communities of color, the last thing our country needs is less gun safety.
The threat of gun violence in our country is almost paralyzing. Our most important and sacred public gathering places have been sites of mass killings. Parents are now terrified to send their children to school, churchgoers are hesitant to worship openly, and shopping is a dangerous activity.
Justice Alito's concurring opinion is also troubling, dismissing the pain of Black communities by saying New York's gun law did not prevent a white supremacist from murdering Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo and would not stop similar killings elsewhere. This is precisely the type of twisted logic the gun lobby loves to see. If anything, the horror in Buffalo suggests the need for more legislation and regulation on guns-not less."
The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today.
(202) 662-8600LATEST NEWS
In 'First Major Blow to Big Pharma,' Federal Judge Blocks Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Injunction
The judge said plaintiff the Chamber of Commerce "demonstrated neither a strong likelihood of success nor irreparable harm."
Sep 30, 2023
A federal judge in Ohio on Friday blocked an attempt by corporate interests to stop Medicare's historic negotiation of certain drug prices with pharmaceuticals.
Medicare gained the power to negotiate drug prices as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), but the several industry groups and drug makers have sued to forestall the program, arguing that it is unconstitutional, CNN explained. One of those groups was the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which filed its lawsuit in June. The Ohio judge Friday rejected its request for a preliminary injunction to block the program before October 1, the date by which pharmaceuticals must agree to negotiate or not.
"This is the first major blow to Big Pharma in its legal battles to block the drug price negotiation provisions under the Inflation Reduction Act," Peter Maybarduk, director of the Access to Medicines program at Public Citizen, said in a statement.
"The Biden-Harris Administration won’t stop fighting for what we know to be true: that nothing in the Constitution prohibits Medicare from negotiating drug prices."
"The Chamber’s lawsuit lacks merit," Maybarduk contined. "The court made the right decision not to grant the injunction, which would have caused needless patient suffering and treatment rationing."
Judge Michael Newman of the Southern District of Ohio, a Trump appointee, ruled that the chamber "demonstrated neither a strong likelihood of success nor irreparable harm," as CNBCreported.
"Consequently, their request for immediate preliminary injunctive relief... is denied," Newman concluded.
Newman also rejected the Biden administration's request to dismiss the case. Instead, he gave the Chamber of Commerce until October 13 to answer some questions about its argument and the administration until October 27 to renew its motion to dismiss.
While the chamber had argued the negotiation program was unconstitutional for multiple reasons, Newman pointed out that drug companies are not forced to participate in Medicare.
"As there is no constitutional right (or requirement) to engage in business with the government, the consequences of that participation cannot be considered a constitutional violation," he said.
The Biden administration celebrated the news.
"Today’s ruling from the Southern District of Ohio affirms that Medicare will move forward with negotiating lower prices for millions of seniors," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. "And, the Biden-Harris Administration won’t stop fighting for what we know to be true: that nothing in the Constitution prohibits Medicare from negotiating drug prices."
The administration announced the first 10 drugs to be subject to negotiations in August. They included the blood-clot treatment Eliquis, Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica, Stelara, and several Novo Nordisk insulins, according to CNN.
With the injunction blocked, "drug companies should agree to participate in the negotiation program in good faith," Maybarduk said. "The program is an important first step in ending the exorbitant prices charged to Medicare enrollees. It’s time for Big Pharma to drop their lawsuits and drop their prices.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Progressives Say GOP Shutdown Chaos Is About Imposing 'Extreme, Cruel' Agenda
"It's the same thing they did with the debt ceiling: Weaponize the tools of the House majority to force a false choice. Their agenda or a national crisis," said the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Sep 29, 2023
With a "completely avoidable" U.S. government shutdown less than 48 hours away, the Congressional Progressive Caucus and individual House Democrats on Friday took aim at Republicans for holding "the American people hostage to force their agenda through" at the expense of working families and others.
"You wouldn't know it by watching them fail to govern, but House Republicans have a policy agenda. It's extreme, cruel, and unworkable, and they are committed to making that agenda law," the Progressive Caucus said on social media. "Here's the problem: They can't pass it. They can't even get all their members to vote for it."
That's because the Republican continuing resolution (CR) that was voted down 232-198 on Friday—which included big cuts to social safety net spending and anti-migrant measures—was not severe enough for members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus' liking.
"So House Republicans' only option is to hold the government and the American people hostage to force their agenda through," the Progressive Caucus continued. "It's the same thing they did with the debt ceiling: Weaponize the tools of the House majority to force a false choice. Their agenda or a national crisis."
According to the Progressive Caucus, that agenda includes:
- An 80% cut in public education funding to take 40,000 teachers from poor students and students with disabilities and kick 100,000 kids out of preschool;
- A 70% cut in funding for 5 million low-income families to heat their homes;
- Slashing food assistance for millions of low-income women and children;
- Cutting support services for nearly 1 million people facing a suicidal or mental health crisis and thousands with opioid use disorder;
- Eliminating one-third of all housing choice voucher funding for poor families, increasing the risk of eviction and homelessness;
- Increasing the wait time for Social Security disability benefits applicants by two months;
- Making fruits and vegetables more expensive for 5 million pregnant mothers; and
- Cutting nearly 50% of federal wildfire prevention funds.
"House Republicans are pushing all these cruel cuts AND a death panel for Social Security and Medicare. If they don't get it, they'll shut down the government," the Progressive Caucus added. "This is why progressives are fighting so hard. We will not sacrifice working people to continual Republican threats."
Progressive Caucus Deputy Chair Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said Friday that "this shutdown is not only tragic, but completely avoidable."
"An overwhelming bipartisan majority of lawmakers in the House support a clean bill to keep the government open. The Senate is prepared to pass it, the president is prepared to sign it," she continued. "But the most extreme faction of MAGA wing of the party—egged on by [former President] Donald Trump, who craves a distraction from his indictments and criminal charges—are demanding an endless list of cuts that have brought us to a government shutdown."
"We have to remember how we got here. The government has shutdown four times in the past 30 years. Each time it happened, an extreme faction of Republicans was in charge of the House of Representatives," Omar added. "We need a clean bill to keep the government open, before this causes real harm. It's time for Republicans to stop playing with people's lives and do their jobs."
Another Progressive Caucus member, Rep. Delia Ramirez, said Friday that "today's hurtful, extremist Republican CR demonstrates the Republicans' hypocrisy, ineffective leadership, and disregard for working families."
The congresswoman continued:
Day after day, we have been here, voting until the wee hours of the morning, and we have made absolutely no progress. After each vote, conservative extremists change their demands, and [House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif)] keeps giving them more and more without making progress.
"To what end? A 30% cut to government services? So that 10,901 women and children in the IL-03 can go hungry? So that 28,187 active and reserved service members will go without payment in Illinois? So that 5,000 residents in IL-03 may lose access to federal help and vouchers?
"These are not the goals of people who care about working families," Ramirez asserted. "On the contrary, it's a vicious attack on working families"
"If the Republicans were serious about averting a shutdown, they would bring a clean CR to the floor," she argued. "That's not what they want. They want to send our economy into crisis, protect Donald Trump, and harm our communities."
"Enough is enough!" Ramirez added. " I call on six courageous, principled Republicans to do their job, serve our constituents, and protect the economy."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Gross Denial of Reality': Biden Infuriates With Approval of More Offshore Drilling
"End Fossil Fuels is pretty clear," said one advocate. "Not 'hold slightly fewer lease sales,' not 'talk about climate action'—End. Fossil. Fuels."
Sep 29, 2023
Rejecting the corporate media's narrative that U.S. President Joe Biden's newly-released offshore drilling plan includes the "fewest-ever" drilling leases, dozens of climate action and marine conservation groups on Friday said the president had "missed an easy opportunity to do the right thing" and follow through on his campaign promise to end all lease sales for oil and gas extraction in the nation's waters.
The U.S. Interior Department announced Friday its five-year plan for the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, including three new areas in the Gulf of Mexico where fossil fuel companies will be permitted to drill.
Biden promised "no new drilling, period" as a presidential candidate, and the plan was announced six months after climate advocates were incensed by the administration's approval of the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska.
The new leases will be added to more than 9,000 drilling leases that have already been sold, and is "incompatible with reaching President Biden’s goal of cutting emissions by 50-52% by 2030," said the Protect All Our Coasts Coalition, citing the findings of Biden's own Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its Office of Atmospheric Protection earlier this year.
While the final plan scales back from the eleven sales that were originally proposed, said the coalition, "the plan is a step backwards from the climate goals the administration has set and for environmental justice communities across the Gulf South, who are already experiencing the disproportionate impact of fossil fuel extraction across the region."
The coalition includes the Port Arthur Community Action Network, which has called attention to the risks posed to public health in the Gulf region by continued fossil fuel extraction.
"Folks in Port Arthur, Texas die daily from cancer, respiratory, heart, and kidney disease from the very pollution that would come from more leases and drilling," said John Beard, the founder, president, and executive director of the group. "If Biden is to truly be the environmental president, he should stop any further leasing and all forms of the petrochemical build-out, call for a climate emergency, and jumpstart the transition to clean green, renewable energy, and lift the toxic pollution from overburdened communities."
Kendall Dix, national policy director of Taproot Earth, dismissed political think tanks that applauded the "historically few lease sales" on Friday.
"The earth does not recognize political 'victories,'" said Dix, pointing to an intrusion of saltwater in South Louisiana's drinking water in recent weeks, which has been exacerbated by the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis.
"As the head of the United Nations and has said, continued fossils fuel development is incompatible with human survival," he added. "We need to transition to justly sourced renewable energy that's democratically managed and accountable to frontline communities as quickly as possible."
Along with groups in the Gulf region, national organizations on Friday condemned a plan that they said blatantly ignores the repeated warnings of international energy experts and the world's top climate scientists who say no new fossil fuel expansion is compatible with a pathway to limiting planetary heating to 1.5°C.
"Sacrificing millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas extraction when scientists are clear that we must end fossil fuel expansion immediately is a gross denial of reality by Joe Biden in the face of climate catastrophe," said Collin Rees, United States program manager at Oil Change International. "Doubling down on drilling is a direct violation of President Biden's prior commitments and continues a concerning trend."
Rees noted that 75,000 people marched in New York City last week to demand that Biden declare a climate emergency and end support for any new fossil fuel extraction projects.
"End Fossil Fuels is pretty clear," said Rees, referring to campaigners' rallying cry. "Not 'hold slightly fewer lease sales,' not 'talk about climate action'—End. Fossil. Fuels."
Despite Biden's campaign promises, Rees noted, the U.S. is currently "on track to expand fossil fuel production more than any other country by 2050."
"I feel disgusted and incredibly let down by Biden's offshore drilling plan. It piles more harm on already-struggling ecosystems, endangered species and the global climate," said Brady Bradshaw, senior oceans campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, another member of the Protect All Our Coasts Coalition. "We need Biden to commit to a fossil fuel phaseout, but actions like this condemn us to oil spills, climate disasters, and decades of toxic harm to communities and wildlife."
The lease sales, said Sarah Winter Whelan of the Healthy Ocean Coalition, also represent a missed opportunity by the administration to treat the world's oceans "as a climate solution, not a source for further climate disaster."
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, negotiated by the White House last year, the government is required to offer at least 60 million acres of offshore gas and oil leases before developing new wind power projects of similar scope.
"A single new lease sale for offshore oil and gas exploration is one too many," said Whelan. "Communities around the country are already dealing with exacerbating impacts from climate disruption caused by our reliance on fossil fuels. Any increase in our dependence on fossil fuels just bakes in greater impacts to humanity."
Gulf communities, added Beard, "refuse to be sacrificed" for fossil fuel profits.
"We say enough is enough," he said.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular
Independent, nonprofit journalism needs your help.
Please Pitch In
Today!
Today!