Links of Interest: August 20-24, 2012 - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Judicial Performance and Elections

The Election Law Blog has copies of the amicus brief filed in support of cert filed jointly by six states and a separate brief filed by Alaska in the Voting Rights Act case. Petitioners Shelby County and John Nix filed the initial petition in July seeking Supreme Court review of a D.C. Circuit decision upholding the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law has an excellent resource page on the underlying Shelby County case.

The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy has a guest editorial on the rise of corporate donations in state supreme court election campaigns.

Judge Loretta Rush is among three final candidates for a state Supreme Court vacancy in Indiana. If she is appointed, she would be the first woman on the Indiana Supreme Court since 1999 and only the second to serve on Indiana’s highest court. Governor Mitch Daniels has until October to make the appointment. The political pressure surrounding the appointment is of interest.

Immigration

Last Friday, the Department of Homeland Security began accepting applications to a new program of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, persons between under the age of 30, who arrived in the US illegally before the age of 16 and have no criminal record. The program is discretionary, not mandated by law, and does not grant legal status and is considered risky by some.

Here is great time-collapsed video of the line at Chicago’s Navy Pier to access a clinic for information about the program. You can read about the DREAM Act here.

Social Justice

The RedEyeChicago reported that Saturday was one of the “deadliest days of the year in Chicago” and the national media called Chicago the “Deadliest Global City“, both referencing homicide rates in the city. Last month the Chicago Reader looked at the role of concentrated poverty in the homicide rate and this week presented this thoughtful piece, about how the concentration of poverty affects mortality from more common causes of death.