New Voting Rights Bill

A bipartisan group of legislators plans to announce the introduction of The Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014 in Congress today. The new bill is in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder which invalidated part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the American Civil Liberties Union reports.

Last year's ruling invalidated "the coverage formula that determined which states and political subdivisions were subject to the law’s preclearance requirement," the ACLU release stated. Because the ruling did not strike down the preclearance requirement itself, it opened the door for Congress to "devise a new formula and other mechanisms" to protect minority voters' rights.

The bipartisan group includes Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT.), among others.

To read the release in its entirety, click here.

Scott Requests SCOTUS To Weigh In On Drug-Testing

Florida Gov. Rick Scott is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to fight a Miami federal judge's ruling on drug-testing state employees. During Scott's first year in office, he issued an executive order for state agencies to conduct random drug tests of state employees. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 79 sued on the grounds that it was unconstitutional, the Orlando Sentinel reports. In 2012, a Miami federal judge ruled that the order violated state employees' Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches.

To read the Orlando Sentinel article, click here.