A lawsuit filed in a Texas federal district court is aiming to limit Americans’ access to mifepristone, commonly referred to as the abortion pill. Anti-abortion advocates say the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should rescind its approval of the medication until it can be adequately tested. “The FDA has one job, which is just to protect Americans from dangerous drugs,” said Denise Harle, senior counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the conservative-leaning groups that brought the lawsuit. “We’re asking the court to remove that chemical drug regimen until and unless the FDA actually goes through the proper…

In March 2021, the House voted to extend a deadline for ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would formally ban discrimination on the basis of sex and has lingered in a state of limbo for decades. The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 17) passed the House in a 222-204 vote that fell largely along party lines. Four Republicans joined all Democrats in favor of the resolution, which was introduced by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) and Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.). The House passed a similar resolution in 2020, but the Senate, controlled by Republicans at the time, did not bring it…

At an April 18 House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the Fiscal Year 2019 budget for the Judiciary, James Duff, Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, testified about the findings of a working group on workplace misconduct policies and procedures. Duff told the subcommittee members that the Federal Judiciary Workplace Conduct Working Group, which he chairs, found that a main barrier to reporting sexual harassment and other misconduct in the Judicial Branch is the formal nature of the complaint process. He told the panel: “What we’ve been hearing [is that] employees need and want a less formalistic process….

Although lawmakers in Congress may have failed to break the sequestration stalemate before heading home for the weekend on February 28, they did manage to take final action on the long-delayed Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization. By a vote of 286 to 138, the House of Representatives voted to send the Senate-passed bill to the President’s desk. Eighty-seven Republicans joined 199 Democrats in voting for passage. The Senate approved its version on February 12, 78 to 22. The legislation renews a 1994 law that expired in 2011. The original law, written by Vice President Joe Biden when he was…