Tag: Civil Rights

Oregon’s U.S. Senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, issued a joint statement today announcing their support for tougher federal hate crimes laws, and cited anti-Semitic incidents described by WW this week. The Senators co-sponsored the NO HATE Act, a bill introduced yesterday by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), which provides “incentives for hate crime reporting,

In an effort to draw attention to LGBTQ protections, Democrats are looking to re-introduce the Equality Act in Congress. They’re facing a very conservative majority, but that’s sort of the point. Democrats think that by introducing the bill, they can show Americans exactly which representatives and senators are anti-LGBTQ equality.

Democrats in Congress plan to reintroduce legislation this month that would ban LGBT discrimination nationwide, despite facing a conservative majority that’s been generally hostile toward the issue. While the bill has little shot of passage, progressives hope inaction by Republicans can illustrate a chasm between the major political parties as

WASHINGTON – Sen. Jeff Merkley D-Ore., released the following statement Wednesday after President Trump reversed the Justice Department’s policy protecting transgender students. “Our nation should never settle for anything less than full equality and full rights for every single American. This is especially important in our schools, where no student

Democratic senators on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning read from a letter harshly critical of attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), written by Coretta Scott King in 1986, after Senate Republicans voted to stop Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) from reading the same letter. The Senate on Tuesday night voted

WASHINGTON – Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., took the 2-4 a.m. shift on the Senate floor early Wednesday as Democrats protested the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to be the nation’s next attorney general, but a majority of colleagues confirmed President Trump’s choice later in the day. Much of the

Oregon’s junior senator just did something that qualifies as remarkable in the current political climate: He read a letter by Coretta Scott King on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Earlier tonight, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) squelched Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) in a floor debate tonight on