Criminal Justice
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Missouri’s Last-Remaining Abortion Clinic Can Stay Open for Now—but the State Has Yanked Its License
Planned Parenthood of St. Louis, which happens to be the only abortion provider left in the state of Missouri, can keep providing the service for now, but Missouri officially yanked its license Friday, endangering the clinic’s operation long-term. If Planned Parenthood ends up closing its doors, Missouri will become the only state in the nation…
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![The Saga Continues: Chicago Judge Orders Special Prosecutor Be Appointed in the Jussie Smollett Case [Corrected]](https://www.theroot.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/wfftkoymcfxvvluhqr8v-300x168.jpg)
The Saga Continues: Chicago Judge Orders Special Prosecutor Be Appointed in the Jussie Smollett Case [Corrected]
Will the Jussie Smollett case ever end? A Chicago judge Friday ordered that a special prosecutor be appointed to look into how Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her office decided to drop all 16 felony disorderly conduct charges against the actor over allegations he staged a homophobic and racist attack against himself in…
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Federal Appeals Court OKs Trump’s Abortion Gag Rules
In a decision Planned Parenthood called “devastating,” a federal appeals court Thursday ruled in favor of the Trump administration’s family planning gag rule intended to prevent health providers from making abortion referrals or discussing where a patient might have one. Thursday’s ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows the rule to take…
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The War on Women
The Trump administration is waging a war on women. For too long, women’s voices have been dismissed when it comes to our reproductive freedom and we must fight back. Reproductive justice has been one of my top priorities for decades, from when I first began my journey on the Hill as a staffer to now…
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Manhattan District Attorney Refuses to Reopen Cases Handled by Central Park Five Prosecutor Linda Fairstein
Since the release of Netflix’s haunting masterpiece When They See Us, karma has been working overtime to derail the lives and careers of former prosecutor Linda Fairstein and attorney Elizabeth Lederer—two of the biggest beneficiaries of the Exonerated Five’s 1990 convictions. But despite calls to do otherwise, CNN reports that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance…
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Kim Kardashian West Partners with Lyft to Provide 5,000 Former Prisoners With Transportation to Job Interviews
Kim Kardashian is problematic as hell. She’s also inexplicably gone from socialite to social justice superheroine as of late, being instrumental in commuting the life sentence of non-violent offender Alice Johnson; deploying her legal team to assist Cyntonia Brown in her eventual clemency; and unleashing her white privilege to address criminal justice reform and other…
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‘Appalled’ and ‘Disappointed’: Federal Judge Tells St. Louis to Stop Dragging Feet on Cash Bail Order
The city of St. Louis can no longer hold people in jail simply because they’re too poor to pay bail, a federal judge ruled last week. The decision was celebrated by the city’s civil rights advocates, who have argued for years that the city’s cash bail system was unconstitutional. But following the ruling—which gave city…
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T.I., the Central Park Five, and Ebenezer Baptist Church Kick Off Summit to End Mass Incarceration
Anyone who thinks the black church is a bygone relic with no relevance to the social justice struggles of today may need to reassess. “The church” is obviously not a monolith and is taking on everything from mental illness and HIV/AIDS to voter suppression and mass incarceration. In that vein, Rev. Raphael Warnock and the…
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Man Arrested in Killing of Black Trans Woman in Dallas, Muhlaysia Booker
Dallas Police have arrested a man they believe to be responsible for killing three women in Dallas, including Muhlaysia Booker, a black trans woman whose death drew national attention last month. Kendrell Lavar Lyles, 34, has been charged with three counts of murder, reports the Associated Press. In a press conference on Wednesday night, police…