Weekly Education and Analysis on Current Events

Zinnia

Zinnia

Category: Headline

  • New Hampshire Judge Blocks The Trump Administration’s Birthright Citizenship Order Nationwide

    The Trump administration’s executive order to terminate birthright citizenship has been blocked by a federal judge in New Hampshire on Thursday, July 10.

    The Judge granted an injunction in a class action lawsuit, protecting children born to undocumented migrants or to migrants with temporary protected status from the revoking of their citizenship by the Trump administration’s executive order.

    This is especially significant due to the Supreme Court’s ruling last month in Trump V. CASA, which ruled that the ability of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions to prevent select actions of an administration exceeded their authority. This ruling threatened to unshackle executive power and chip away at the nation’s checks and balances, limiting those who could push back against unconstitutional federal actions.

    However, the court imposed no limitations on class action lawsuits, where the party who is suing represents an entire class of individuals; in this case, all children born to undocumented or temporarily protected migrants, who happen to live nationwide. The New Hampshire judge worked around the supreme court’s ruling by imposing an injunction through a class action lawsuit to protect these individuals from the administration’s executive order.

    The targeting of those born to undocumented or temporarily protected migrants clearly outlines the intentions of this administration to extend deportation rhetoric beyond their stated “criminals only” approach. There is no world in which the targeting of citizenship serves the American people and sets no precent for this power to expand beyond the individuals currently in the crosshairs. It has never been about the “criminals” but rather about a targeting of those deemed to be an “other”.

    This rhetoric and useless policy goals are what justify an allocation of 175 billion dollars to agencies like ICE while public schools, hospitals, nutrition assistance programs, and the like struggle for funding. This administration continues to pursue unjust policies while leaving behind millions of struggling Americans.

  • Massachusetts Trash Collectors Fighting for Better Pay, Employers allow Strike to Continue for 7th Day

    Republic Services Workers represented by Teamsters Local 25 have entered their seventh day of strikes across Massachusetts. According to their union, trash collectors across the state are demanding higher wages, better health coverage, and stronger labor protections.

    Teamsters Local 25 has made it clear that they are seeking the same wages as other trash collection services in the region, ensuring that employers properly compensate their employees. The Union has also stated that they are committed to negotiating in good faith and that they are demanding fair wages and benefits for the workers.

    The power to end the strike rests upon the employers and it is their duty to ensure that their workers are compensated fairly for the work they do. The buildup of trash in local communities is on the fault of management and their inability to pay their hardworking employees their fair share for the work they do each and every day.

    Strikes are never the first action that a union takes when negotiating for dignified wages and benefits. They are the culmination of months, or even years long efforts to stall negotiations on behalf of the employers. Unions regularly engage in good faith negotiations while workers fulfill their daily obligations, and in fact, many union contracts are won without the need for a strike when employers respectfully meet the demands of their own workforce. Ultimately, if a strike is deemed necessary by the workers and their union, it is often because the employers have failed to engage in good faith negotiations and have demonstrated no desire to listen to workers’ demands. For many of these hardworking employees, there may be no other option left if management has repeatedly demonstrated an unwillingness to negotiate.

    Each strike demonstrates that it is the workers who keep society running. The fact that trash is beginning to build up just days after workers called a strike goes to show the amount of work that these employees put in each and every single day. It is only when the employers fail on their part to ensure that their workers are properly compensated that trash begins to buildup.

  • Medicaid Cuts Will Leave Many Americans Without Another Option for Healthcare

    The narrative that the Trump administration was pushing prior to their Medicaid cuts claimed to kick off non-workers from the system. However Two-Thirds of medicare recipients are already working. A large majority of these workers are on medicare because many jobs don’t actually provide healthcare insurance. Not all employers are obligated to provide employees healthcare. These workers rely heavily on these state programs to receive their medical care.

    As a result of these funding cuts, many working Americans will be left without another option. This will put at risk their ability to seek preventative care as well as their access the resources they need for any type of healthcare.

    The lack of a viable public option or an employer provided option will leave many Americans with no other option. For an Administration that claims to want to make Americans healthy, this will do the exact opposite.