Commentary
Title IX: The Game’s Not Over
7.14.11
As the United States Women’s Soccer Team fights their way to the World Cup Gold, we at the ACLU can’t help but be proud of the great strides women have made since Title IX became law. When more women participate in sports and achieve in fields that have traditionally been male dominated, we begin to close the gender gap and pull ourselves closer to equality.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination in schools. Since its passage, women and girls seeking to participate in athletics have found a path through which to do so. A 2006 study found that since 1972 women’s participation in sports at the collegiate level increased 450%. The same study found that nine times more women participated in high school sports than did in 1972.
Of course, Title IX’s scope reaches further than sports alone. In 1970, women accounted for only 17.5% of bachelor’s degrees granted in natural sciences and engineering. By 2004, the percentage rose to 38.4%. In the year 2000, 65.7% of high school girls took chemistry. Today, more than half of all bachelor’s degrees completed in chemistry are earned by women.
These numbers are inspiring and indicate how important Title IX has More >
An open letter from ACLU of Oklahoma Program Director and Legislative Counsel Tamya Cox
3.27.09
I attended the committee meeting on HB 1595, the Statistical Reporting on Abortion bill. This bill would require doctors to ask a series of invasive questions that would then be uploaded to the Internet. This bill also prevents gender-selection abortion. This is not an issue in the United States and 90 percent of abortions that do occur happen within 12 weeks of pregnancy. Fourteen to sixteen weeks into the pregnancy is typically the amount of time before gender is decided. Only four percent of Oklahoma abortions occur at or after week 16. However, the data does not show if these abortions are due to women’s health risks or fetus anomaly.
But while the abortion issue is an important topic, I am concerned that the legislature continually politicizes the topic and doesn’t get to the real issue. All sides want to reduce the number of abortions; all sides want to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies. But the politics of the “choice vs. anti-choice” issue overshadows this. It is time both sides come together, divorce the emotion, and have meaningful dialogue.
We first need to decide how to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies. I believe it is through a comprehensive sex education. More >
THE DEATH PENALTY – TORTURE REFINED?
11.10.08
Randy Coyne
By Randy Coyne, National Board Representative
Presently, 36 states (including Oklahoma) and the federal government are in the execution business. All of these jurisdictions (save one) use lethal injection as the primary method of killing prisoners sentenced to death. Other apparently lawful execution methods include hanging, electrocution, and death by firing squad.
During the past year, Oklahoma prison officials have killed twice. On August 21, 2007, officials at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester lethally injected Frank Duane Welch for the 1987 murder of Jo Talley Cooper, a 28-year-old Norman woman. And on June 17, just two months after the Baze Supreme Court decision, Terry Lyn Short died by poison for murdering Ken Yamamoto, an Oklahoma City University student in 1995.
Notwithstanding the biblical admonition, “thou shalt not kill,” the U.S. Constitution clearly contemplates the use of death as a punishment under certain circumstances and with certain restrictions. For example, although the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments empower the government to “deprive” a prisoner of his life, before the government exterminates an inmate, it must first provide due process. Whatever the hell that is. Oh, I remember: It’s whatever the Court says it is.
The most meaningful limitation on the death penalty, though, is More >
BITTERSWEET SESSION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES
9.10.08
By Tamya Cox, Program Director
The second session of the 51st Oklahoma Legislature ended on May 23. Like many sessions before, many appropriation bills were passed and little policy was made. The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma had great hopes for this legislative session; it was our mission to be proactive and support bills that preserved civil liberties. Senator Harry Coates, R- Seminole, introduced a bill that would have repealed the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act or more commonly known as 1804. Representative Mike Shelton introduced HB 2865, a bill that would notify individuals when their right to vote has been restored. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, these two bills never made it out of committee.
We were informed before the session even began that Representative Randy Terrill, author of 1804, planned to introduce “The Son of 1804.” This extension of 1804 would have denied birthright citizenship to children born to undocumented individuals, seized property of anyone who violated 1804, and made English the official language. Fortunately, Terrill did not get very far in his mission. The only portion of his bill to gain momentum was English Only.
SB 163 proposed to make English the official language of Oklahoma. It would prohibit More >
Defending the Indefensible: Oklahoma Struggles to Salvage Its Unconstitutional Sharia Ban
9.13.11
Posted by Allie Shinn in Commentary
Last November, the federal district court rejected this attempt to use the state constitution to condone bigotry and blocked the amendment from taking effect. Yesterday, a federal appellate court in Denver heard arguments in the state’s appeal of that decision, but the state should fare no better this time around.
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