Washington state Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, will challenge Republican Congresswomen Jaime Herrera Beutler in the state’s 3rd Congressional District.
Moeller represents the most formidable challenger to enter the 2016 race against Jaime Herrera Beutler. » More …
Carolyn Long, associate professor in the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, will appear in an episode of a new television series produced by C-SPAN in cooperation with the National Constitution Center. “Landmark Cases” features 12 of the Supreme Court’s most significant decisions. It will introduce viewers to the people who sparked the cases, the key lawyers and justices, the time period in which the case reached the Supreme Court, and the court’s decision and its impact. » More …
On Oct. 31, the day after her 91st birthday, Ms. Dollree Mapp, of the 1961 landmark Supreme Court decision, Mapp v. Ohio, died. Carolyn N. Long, associate professor in the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs at WSU Vancouver and author of Mapp v. Ohio: Guarding Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures, asserts: “There has been insufficient progress in police professionalism since 1957 when Ms. Mapp … stood up to the aggressive police tactics” of the Bureau of Special Investigation of Cleveland, Ohio.
In her guest column published by Cleveland.com, Long says, “Mapp’s passing, which was not widely reported when it happened, bears mention in light of the Justice Department’s damning report on police practices in Cleveland and the recent death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, an African-American child shot and killed by a Cleveland officer for carrying a toy gun the officer thought was a weapon.”
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial Hobby Lobby decision, Carolyn Long, associate professor of the School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs at WSU Vancouver, explained the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), the basis of the court’s ruling.
RFRA was adopted after a 1990 Supreme Court decision denied unemployment benefits to two Native American men who used peyote in a religious ritual.
The Washington State Patrol says lawmakers should be shielded from arrest or civil process during the session, except for serious offenses.
But Carolyn Long, associate professor of politics, philosophy, and public affairs, disagrees. “I think it’s a terrible idea in this time when the public has a lot of mistrust in politicians and believe they get favored treatment,” she said. “So we ought to re-evaluate the application of the law and make sure it’s consistent.”