Detroit’s structural deficit, which has set the stage for serious financial challenges, is driven by root causes, which will not be mitigated by the imposition of an emergency financial manager (EFM) — a post created by a law that Michigan citizens overwhelmingly repealed four months ago. EFMs not only subvert the Republic form of government — the right of citizens to be represented by officials whom they s ...

The state of Michigan’s takeovers of cities and school districts in whatever form have been very harmful to the public’s interests. Back when it was self-governing, the Detroit Public School District had about a $90 million surplus before it was taken over by Gov. Engler over a decade ago. When the state left them, DPS had a deficit of tens of millions. Now, after two emergency managers, the deficit from En ...

Over a 43-year career in journalism, I have been blessed with some memorable experiences: I have covered presidential and vice presidential campaigns, I have flown on Air Force One, I have gone to parties at the White House, met Pope John Paul II, spent two weeks in Egypt, visited former slave dungeons in Dakar and Accra and have traveled around the world, including Rome, Paris, London, Kuala Lumpur, Bangko ...

Shelby County, Ala. is suing the U.S. Department of Justice because they think Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (and its reauthorization in 1982 and 2006) is unfair. The facts: The small city of Calera redistricted its boundaries in a way that the sole African American councilman lost his seat. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act forced a new election with different boundaries and Ernest Montgomery ...

On Feb. 12, once again President Barack Hussein Obama mounted the podium at the Capitol to deliver the State of the Union Address to a Joint Session of Congress, the nation and the world. By all reasonable measures the address was an impressive center-left, moderate-liberal agenda on domestic issues like jobs, the minimum wage, infrastructure repair, energy, early childhood education, tax reform, deficit re ...

This year, we are celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington. As African Americans, we are pleased that this country has progressed from the forced enslavement of our race to the removal of the Jim Crow laws and practices. ...

One of the most confusing, recurring Internet stories is the admonishment to protect the expiring 1965 Voting Rights Act. The last time that happened was in 2006 when the VRA was extended by Congress to 2031. When the law was extended, most African Americans breathed a sigh of relief and put concern for the law on the shelf — at least for 25 years. ...

I was among the 33.5 million people who sat riveted to their televisions, parsing every second of the State of the Union (SOTU) address. I was stunned to learn, through a Washington Post article by Lisa De Moraes, that viewership was less substantial for this address than last year’s 38 million and even lower than the 48 million that watched in 2010. Are people less interested in what our president has to s ...

One hundred and fifty years since the emancipation proclamation, African Americans still are trying to make the American Dream make sense. Freedom has opened up new opportunity, new responsibility and old pitfalls. It turns out that slavery and racism were not only personal preferences, they were powerful institutions. They determined the law, the language, the land use and the overall social, political and ...

At a time when our nation needed its legal community to step forward and join in the struggle for equality, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was born. I was privileged to be present in the East Room of the White House on the day President Kennedy urged a group of 244 lawyers to use their training and influence to further the goals of the civil rights movement. ...