STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE TOP STATEÂ judge in Massachusetts wants lawmakers to make more funding available for low-income Bay Staters to get legal representation in civil matters, warning that recent investments still have not done enough to ensure access for those in need. At an annual event highlighting the civil legal aid system, Supreme Judicial […]
Civil and Constitutional Rights
Posted inCriminal Justice
Mass. police surveillance case could go to Supreme Court
THE ACLU is asking the US Supreme Court to consider a Massachusetts case that could set limits on the police’s ability to conduct long-term camera surveillance without obtaining a search warrant. The case, Moore v. United States, stems from an investigation into a Springfield woman for drug and firearm crimes. According to facts laid out […]
Posted inOpinion
Britney Spears case isn’t illustrative of much
THE UNFORTUNATE experience Britney Spears has had under guardianship should not be construed to imply that all guardianship arrangements are abusive or exploitative. And the Spears case should not be used, in particular, to advocate for legislation that could make it more difficult for family members to become or remain as guardians of persons with […]
Posted inOpinion
Give 16-year-olds the right to vote
IN 1971, AFTER INTENSE youth advocacy, the United States lowered the voting age to eighteen through the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution. Although some people had advocated for decades to lower the voting age, success came due to the crisis of the Vietnam War: young people were being sent to die, yet had no […]
Posted inOpinion
Ruling on milllionaire tax right one constitutionally
AS A PLAINTIFF in the lawsuit Anderson v. Attorney General, I applaud the court’s decision, although I don’t consider myself or the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the organization that I represent, the winner. The real winner is our democracy. Despite all the rhetoric, the underlying public policy question about whether the Commonwealth should introduce a marginal […]
Posted inOpinion
Ruling could have big impact in Massachusetts
THE UNITED STATES has a single constitution, but interpretations of that document handed down by federal courts often have divergent impacts across the country. Such is the case with the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Janus v. AFSCME.  The Court overturned a 41-year-old ruling and found that an Illinois public employee who chose not to […]
Posted inEconomy
DeLeo: House to respond to court’s union ruling
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AS LAWMAKERS MULL THE IMPACTS of a US Supreme Court ruling seen as a devastating blow to public sector labor unions, the Massachusetts House is hoping labor leaders will suggest ways the Legislature can respond and soften the blow. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday in Janus v. American Federation of […]
Posted inOpinion
Why free speech must be defended
ON SATURDAY – and earlier this month – students around the country organized marches and staged a nationwide walkout to honor the lives of the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and to press lawmakers to pass stricter gun control laws. In doing so, they invoked one of the most powerful tools […]
Posted inThe Download
Is it time to talk about gun violence?
When Adam Lanza, an anti-social misanthrope who shot and killed his mother in Newtown, Connecticut, and then took her gun arsenal and slaughtered 20 six- and seven-year-olds and a half-dozen teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School for no apparent reason, many thought the long-awaited debate over gun violence would commence in earnest. After all the […]
Posted inThe Download
Eminent domain dust-ups
Brookline says it needs a new elementary school to accommodate its bulging population of school-age children. Waltham says it needs a new high school. Both seem like perfectly worthy pursuits. But both cases are casting a harsh spotlight on a government right enshrined in the Constitution, but one that frequently stirs disention and protest. In […]