Political Op-Eds

The Senate parliamentarian's decision last week against including the increase in the minimum wage to $15 in the Covid-19 relief bill has forced a basic question before Democratic leadership to center stage: With control of both the House and the Senate, will they use the power they have to keep their promise to raise wages for poor and low-income people?

Elie Honig writes that it's always difficult to select jurors in high-profile cases like the killing of George Floyd. However, the selection process does include vital safeguards intended to ensure an impartial jury. "Every or nearly every potential juror will have heard of Floyd's death before the trial begins. But that alone does not disqualify a potential juror."

President Joe Biden is on the cusp of a major legislative victory. If all goes according to plan and the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan is signed into law, Biden will have scored an early triumph in his presidency. The Covid-19 relief bill will provide a wide range of benefits, from direct payments to American families, money for vaccine development and distribution, small business relief, more substantial subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, a child tax credit, a higher Earned Income Tax Credit, federal funds for state and local governments and much more.

What should happen if the public words and actions of members of Congress helped contribute to the attack on the US Capitol on January 6?

Six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and a swath of the Gulf Coast, the House of Representatives Select Bipartisan Committee issued a report to assess the preparation and response to that historic storm, which killed more than 1,800 people.

I promise that if you or someone you love has survived Covid-19 I rejoice for you.

As a former prosecutor and criminal law professor in Minneapolis, I am fielding a lot of calls about the upcoming trial of Derek Chauvin, who is accused of murdering George Floyd in this city. The media wants to know about the charges, the jury selection, the effects of televising the case and what the lawyers might do. No one has asked me about the very thing that makes this case important: The racially disproportionate treatment of Black Americans by the police. The trial will be a cyclone circling around the unmoving mass at its center -- race -- that silently drives the fury around it.

Americans believe by hefty majorities that we can solve our national problems and that the federal government should play a major role in areas including infrastructure, health care, environment, poverty reduction and economy. This broad support provides a foundation for Joe Biden to become the most transformative president since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

There's a way to stop Republican senators from using the filibuster to block the passage of the landmark "For the People Act," write Norman Eisen, Richard W. Painter and Jeffrey Mandell. That way would be to make a special exception -- similar to that used for fiscal measures -- allowing a simple majority vote to approve laws on ethics and voting protections.

I was getting my first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the Bayou City Event Center in Houston when the news broke that Governor Greg Abbott is lifting Texas' mask mandate -- even as health officials warn not to ease restrictions aimed at stemming the pandemic. No one at the vaccination site removed their mask, fortunately. But we immediately started discussing the decision -- and we were all appalled.

The US Senate is expected to pass a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill in the coming days before it heads to President Joe Biden's desk to be signed into law. This may seem like a major win for the new administration and congressional Democrats, but it's actually a Pyrrhic victory -- one that they may come to regret in the weeks and months ahead.