Supreme Court Strikes Down Louisiana Abortion Restrictions

Supreme Court Strikes Down Louisiana Abortion Restrictions
Data from PRRI’s American Values Atlas shows that among all 50 states, Louisiana has the largest proportion of residents who say that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases (60%). In a 5-4 vote on Monday, the Supreme Court struck down a controversial Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics. The law, which was enacted in 2014, required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, and could have left the state with a single abortion clinic. “Legal experts from both sides of the ideological divide still expect the court to ultimately chip away at access to abortion and narrow the scope of the precedents that make it legal,” Axios reports.
Nikole Hannah-Jones: ‘It Is Time For Reparations’
According to PRRI’s 2019 American Values Survey, 64% of Black Americans said that the U.S. government should provide some form of economic compensation to African Americans who are descendants of slaves as a way to make to up for the harm caused by slavery, segregation, and other forms of racial discrimination. The New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones dives into the argument for restitution and explains the history of economic injustice in America, how it prevented generations of Black Americans from acquiring wealth, and moving toward a national conversation on reparations. “Reparations are not about punishing white Americans, and white Americans are not the ones who would pay for them,” Nikole Hannah-Jones writes. “Reparations are a societal obligation in a nation where our Constitution sanctioned slavery, Congress passed laws protecting it and our federal government initiated, condoned and practiced legal racial segregation and discrimination against black Americans until half a century ago.”
How Fox News Misguided Viewers on Coronavirus Information
Not surprisingly, Trump has extraordinary support among several Republican subgroups who hold favorable views of his job performance. A majority (55%) of Republicans for whom Fox News is their primary news source say there is nothing Trump could do to lose their approval, compared to only 29% of Republicans who do not cite Fox News as their primary news source. New perspective from Margaret Sullivan in The Washington Post analyzes survey data that breaks down how Fox News and other right-wing media outlets may have intensified the severity of the pandemic due to misinformation. “Those who relied on mainstream sources — the network evening newscasts or national newspapers that President Trump constantly blasts as “fake news” — got an accurate assessment of the pandemic’s risks,” she writes, adding that the data indicates those viewers were more likely to respond accordingly to the pandemic. “Those who relied on Fox or, say, radio personality Rush Limbaugh, came to believe that vitamin C was a possible remedy, that the Chinese government created the virus in a lab, and that government health agencies were exaggerating the dangers in the hopes of damaging Trump politically.”
Trump Retweets Video of Supporter Saying ‘White Power’
More than three in four (77%) Black Americans say Trump is encouraging white supremacists, along with 69% of Hispanic Americans and 59% of Americans of mixed or other races. Among white Americans, 49% say he has encouraged those groups and 44% say he has not had an impact. On Sunday, President Trump retweeted a video of a retirement community in Florida participating in a golf-cart parade where one supporter yelled “white power” twice with his fist in the air. Trump retweeted the video and said, “Thank you to the great people of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe [Biden] is shot. See you soon!!!” before deleting it hours later. “White power” is a white supremacist slogan, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Progressive Candidates of Color Gain Momentum Across the U.S.
PRRI data from 2019 shows that Black voters are more likely than other groups to list healthcare as a critical issue — nearly eight in ten (78%) of Black Americans compared to 65% of the country overall say health care is a critical issue. In The New York Times, Giovanni Russonello looks at several candidates from underrepresented communities running for political office across the U.S. who are championing progressive causes. “For years, polling shows, black voters have been broadly supportive of liberal policies such as universal government health care and free tuition to public colleges. That’s only becoming more true as millennials and members of Generation Z account for an increasing share of the electorate,” Russonello writes.