Postcards

Families Belong Together

This month, the League engaged in the immigration crisis on several fronts. LWVUS sent a letter to lawmakers on Capitol Hill urging them to vote NO on two pieces of very partisan legislation that do not address the tragic situation or reunite families. Last week, the House failed to pass one of the bad bills and pulled the other for consideration. Thank you to our Lobby Corps for pressuring lawmakers to vote NO and for all of our online engagers who took action. This issue is far from resolved, but these bills are bad immigration policy and do not reunite families. 

While President Trump signed an Executive Order to end family separation, the order falls short on details and will not resolve the crisis. Today, League members attending Convention in Chicago and Leagues around the country participated in the Families Belong Together marches. We encourage you to reach out to Congress and tell them to pass the Dream Act now. 

Continuing the Fight for Fair Maps 

Earlier this month the Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs in Gill v. Whitford  failed to demonstrate standing and sent the case back to the district court to give the plaintiffs a chance to demonstrate that they have suffered “concrete and particularized injuries”. In Benisek v. Lamone, the court also sent the case back to the lower courts without ruling on the merits.  

Both decisions mean that voters in Maryland and Wisconsin will once again be forced to participate in an election under an unconstitutional map. However, Leagues continue to gain momentum on redistricting, including in Pennsylvania where the League is working for a plan 'free from partisan hijacking' and in North Carolina where we could see the next big legal battle on gerrymandering.   

Check out A Conversation on Redistricting with Ruth Greenwood and Nick Stephanopoulos, originally broadcast live at our National Convention on June 28. Greenwood served on the legal team for the plaintiffs in Gill v. Whitford and Stephanopoulos created the Efficiency Gap Theory, which is the standard the court considered in the Gill v. Whitford case. Both are co-council for the League of Women Voters of North Carolina in the partisan gerrymandering case, LWV v. Rucho.