In The News

Reports suggest that President Trump has finally decided to pull out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement after many weeks of a back and forth administration tug-of-war. Trump himself has tweeted that he will make an official announcement in the coming days. I have followed the ups and downs of this debate more closely than most, and weighed in where I could, because, as the U.S. special envoy for climate change, I led the U.S. negotiating effort from the start of the Obama administration through and beyond the Paris talks.

When Kyrin Falcetti dropped her 4-year old son Cole off at the babysitter, she had no idea it would be the last time she'd see him.

One hour in, the young boy somehow got his hands on a loaded gun at the sitter's house and shot himself to death.

"I don't want to be burying my son," Falcetti. "He didn't do anything wrong."Cole's babysitter shared a home with her fiancé who is a sheriff's deputy in training.

Expanding the Mexico City Policy; cutting the US’s contribution to the United Nations Population Fund budget; proposing a health care reform plan that would significantly reduce women’s access

Students protested the campus carry bill at the University of Georgia in April. Credit John Roark/Athens Banner-Herald, via Associated Press
Two more states — Arkansas and Georgia — have passed “campus carry” laws permitting licensed gun owners to pack concealed firearms at public universities, on the bizarre premise that students will be more secure from the nation’s epidemic of gun violence if there are more guns.

3 Reasons the Johnson Amendment Should Not Be Repealed

100 Days of Trump’s Disregard for Women’s Health and Safety

 — and He’s Not Done

These first 100 days have made it clear that the Trump administration will treat women’s health and lives as disposable. It has acted with clear disregard for women’s health and safety, and the health and safety of their families.

On just day three of his time on the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch will hear arguments in a case that could reshape the landscape of government funding to religious institutions.   

Associate Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch will have been on the job three whole days when he hears arguments in what could be one of the most significant separation of church and state cases to come before the U.S. Supreme Court in decades.

As Republicans struggle to craft a sweeping tax package — a process already rife with political land mines — they are preparing to add another volatile element to the mix: a provision that would end a six-decade-old ban on churches and other tax-exempt organizations supporting political candidates.

The repeal of the “Johnson amendment” is being written into tax legislation developed in the House of Representatives, according to aides. President Trump has vowed to “totally destroy” the provision at the behest of evangelical Christians who helped elect him.

The Trump administration will leave empty the office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, according to a former State Department official.

Today the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. This was accomplished by changing the rules of the Senate to permit a simple majority (51 votes) to decide.

JACPAC is deeply disappointed by this confirmation. We say "Elections Have Consequences." The impact of this confirmation will be felt for generations.

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