Three challenges for the First Amendment
A group of some of the country’s top scholars in First
Amendment law recently gathered at Washington University in St. Louis to discuss pressing challenges
being faced by the first of our Bill of Rights. Three issues rose to the
top of the list for Washington University’s first amendment experts:
free expression in a digital age; impaired political debate; and
weakened rights of groups.
Political empowerment fading for black Americans in the age of Obama
Hailed by some as the “end of race as we know it” and
the beginning of a “post-racial” America, the 2008 election of Barack
Obama sparked a measurable bump in feelings of political empowerment
among black Americans. But those sentiments have faded considerably over
the last year or so, according to a new analysis of political survey
data, with the sharpest declines in perceived political power coming
among blacks who identify themselves as conservatives or “born again”
Christians.