Courts and Judges

Trump’s Attack on Birthright Citizenship Echoes a Confederate Playbook

PUBLISHED 4/3/2026 by

This week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a landmark case that seeks to fundamentally rewrite the substance and meaning of one of the most important provisions of the Constitution—birthright citizenship—by presidential fiat. For over 150 years, birthright citizenship has been protected by the 14th Amendment and widely recognized as one of the most important, fundamental rights found in the constitution. Fortunately, the justices appear skeptical.

Trump’s executive order challenges the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship—reviving legal arguments rooted in the nation’s post-slavery past and testing the limits of presidential power.

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court Election Is the Next Big Test in a High-Stakes Year for Democracy

PUBLISHED 4/1/2026 by

As attention builds toward the 2026 election cycle, the first major political test is already underway. Early in-person voting has begun for Wisconsin’s April 7 state Supreme Court election–a high-stakes contest that, despite its “nonpartisan” label, reflects the same ideological battles reshaping courts across the country.

The race pits two sitting Wisconsin Court of Appeals judges—Chris Taylor and Maria Lazar—against each other to fill an open seat left by conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley, who announced last August she would not seek reelection. Both candidates are women, so the April 7 result will not change one defining feature of the court: its overwhelming female majority. Women hold six of the seven seats, more than any other state supreme court in the nation (though all are white, in a state where more than one in five residents identifies as a person of color.) 

Though candidates do not run with party labels, Taylor is widely seen as the liberal-backed candidate, while Lazar, a member of the Federalist Society, aligns with conservative legal networks that have spent decades building influence in both federal and state courts.

Wisconsin is one of 23 states (and Washington D.C.) that have same-day registration, allowing you to register at the polls on April 7 when you go to cast your ballot. You can also register in advance of Election Day. The deadline for early in-person registration at your local clerk’s office is April 3 at 5 p.m. Early in person voting began on March 24 and runs through April 5. 

14 Powerful Lines From Justice Jackson’s Dissent on Conversion Therapy: ‘Like It or Not, Treatment Standards Exist in America’

PUBLISHED 3/31/2026 by

The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth, ruling the law likely violates the First Amendment—a decision advocates warn will put young people at risk.

In a rare and forceful move, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson delivered her dissent from the bench.

We’ve pulled the most powerful, incisive—and yes, spiciest—lines from her 35-page dissent. Read, share your favorite line, and help lift up a dissent that refuses to mince words about what’s at stake.

Abortion Provider Challenges Colorado Parental Notification Law Under 1972 ERA and 2024 Right to Abortion Amendment

PUBLISHED 3/25/2026 by

As Republicans ever more relentlessly attack abortion rights in states across the country, women’s rights advocates are rediscovering underutilized state equal rights amendments (ERAs) and using newly passed abortion rights amendments to state constitutions to challenge longstanding barriers to abortion in blue states.

Colorado is now ground zero for that fight, where Dr. Rebecca Cohen is challenging a state law requiring young women under the age of 18 to notify a parent 48 hours before accessing an abortion or navigate the courts to obtain permission to access this basic care.

Some legislators who voted for the Colorado parental notification law explicitly said they hoped it would be a deterrent to young women engaging in sexual activity—“but nobody seems very invested in their partners paying a price for it,” said Rupali Sharma, litigation co-director of The Lawyering Project, which represents Cohen.

 “Not only is the state trying to coerce you to carry your pregnancy to term, but it’s treating you fundamentally differently than your male partner, who has also participated in bringing this pregnancy along,” said Sharma. 

The Filibuster Is No Virtue

PUBLISHED 3/19/2026 by

Republicans have put on the Senate floor (barely, with only 51 votes) their massive voter suppression bill, inaptly named the SAVE America Act.

What will likely trip up Republicans is not the substance of the bill, but fiddling with the filibuster, which will be necessary to pass this anti-democratic monstrosity. A critical segment of the Republican Senate caucus cares about maintaining the filibuster, a tool Republicans have used repeatedly to block bills with majority support, such as reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act.

Teens Avoid Coercive Parental Involvement Laws by Using Telehealth Abortion Services 

PUBLISHED 3/10/2026 by and

The majority of U.S. teenagers live in states that require parental involvement in abortion healthcare decision-making. If parents are unavailable or teens under 18 do not want to involve their parents, they must go to court and convince a judge that they are mature enough to decide on their own or that the abortion is in their best interest.

To avoid this invasive and burdensome process, resourceful teens are now turning to abortion care from telehealth providers located outside their restrictive states.

Under the Reagan administration, parental involvement laws proliferated as an attempt to restrict minors’ access to reproductive healthcare.

One of the most well-known, devastating consequences of these laws was the 1988 death of Becky Bell in Indiana. When Bell became pregnant as a teenager, Indiana had a parental consent law. Bell was afraid to tell her parents about the pregnancy for fear of disappointing them, but she was also afraid to go before a local judge she heard was reluctant to grant waivers. Believing she had no other option, she turned to an unsafe, likely self-induced abortion. Several days later, Bell was rushed to the hospital with a massive infection and died. Her death became a poignant symbol of the lethal effects of restricting young people’s access to safe abortion.

The Epstein Files Reveal a System Built to Shield the Powerful

PUBLISHED 3/6/2026 by

Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes were not carried out in isolation—they were enabled by a system that repeatedly narrowed investigations, shielded powerful figures and sidelined survivors.

Investigative journalist Julie K. Brown with the Miami Herald has extensively documented the mishandling of the Epstein case. Early reports and accusations were treated with skepticism; initial investigations were shut down; charges were narrowed; powerful actors were shielded; and even meaningful survivor notification of prosecutorial decisions was bypassed. Drawing on more than two decades working within the legal system on domestic violence and sexual assault cases, I see the Epstein files as a stark illustration of how institutions often fail those they are meant to protect.

The partial and selective release of the Epstein files only deepens these concerns. Survivors’ identifying information has been exposed while the names of powerful associates remain redacted. When victims are left vulnerable and power remains protected, accountability has not merely failed—it has been inverted.

This moment demands more than incremental disclosure: It requires full transparency, rigorous investigation and prosecution wherever the evidence leads, so that survivors’ courage is met with the justice they were promised.

Texas Sues California Doctor Over Abortion Pills in Escalating Interstate Fight

PUBLISHED 2/25/2026 by | UPDATED 3/4/2026 at 7:57 A.M. PT

Texas antiabortion politicians have made one thing clear: Their ban was never meant to stop at the Texas border.

On Feb. 1, Dr. Remy Coeytaux of California became the first person to be sued in federal court under Texas’ newly enacted House Bill 7, a bounty-hunter law that invites private citizens to file civil suits against anyone who manufactures, distributes, mails or provides abortion medication to women in Texas. The plaintiff in the lawsuit is Jerry Rodriguez, a private citizen who claims that Coeytaux prescribed and mailed abortion pills used by his former girlfriend to end her pregnancy.

The legal pressure on telehealth providers intensified this week: On Tuesday, Feb. 24, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also filed suit against Aid Access, an Austria-based nonprofit that ships medication abortion internationally (including to all 50 states), along with its founders Rebecca Gomperts and Coeytaux. The complaint alleges the defendants violated Texas law by prescribing and mailing abortion medication to Texas patients and seeks an injunction preventing them from providing services to residents of the state.

Telehealth providers in states like California, New York and Massachusetts have been able to serve patients in banned states because of these shield laws: legal protections that prevent states with bans from prosecuting providers who are acting lawfully in the states where they work. So far, shield laws have withstood attacks from banned states. 

Keeping Score: Voters Disapprove of Kristi Noem and ICE; Winter Olympics Nears Gender Parity; Challenges to State Abortion Bans Continue

PUBLISHED 2/25/2026 by

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week:
—“Kristi Noem sees immigrants like me as subhuman,” says Santiago Mayer, executive director of Voters of Tomorrow.
—A majority of U.S. voters think DHS Secretary Kristi Noem should be removed, and disagree with how ICE is operating.
—Women are 47 percent of athletes at the Winter Olympics in Milan.
—California Gov. Gavin Newsom fired back at threats from Louisiana over abortion protections.
—President Trump appointed no women of color to federal judgeships in his first year in office.
—A new Kansas law introduces a “bounty hunter” aspect to transphobic bathroom bills.
—Some ICE detention facilities and prisons refuse to provide appropriate menstrual products.
—A Kentucky couple was arrested over a year after seeking care for a miscarriage.
—A wave of “common sense” candidates, more than half women, recently won competitive school board races in swing states. Sixty-two percent of “extremist” candidates lost their elections, showing that culture war tactics like book bans may no longer resonate with local voters.

… and more.

In Serbia, Women Journalists Say Death Threats Have Become Routine

PUBLISHED 2/12/2026 by

In 2019, Jovana Gligorijević wrote a damning profile of a Serbian influencer who had connections to political power players and alleged criminal networks. 

Gligorijević works at Vreme, an independent news magazine founded in 1990 by intellectuals and activists fighting state censorship. Aside from her political reportage, she’s covered stories on sexual violence and, specifically, how Serbia’s judiciary treats rape victims. She notes wryly that in her experience, “when you report on politics and human rights, sooner or later you come across the far right as the root cause of the problem.” 

Other independent women journalists like Gligorijević that are critical of the Serbian government face sexual insults, threats of lawsuits, surveillance, smear campaigns and online rage.