July 2013 Sites

Supreme court, Bail-in: 

U.S. asks new limit on Texas vote laws (ScotusBlog)

• The Obama administration, in a sweeping assault on the state of Texas’s history on minorities’ right to vote, asked a federal court in San Antonio on Thursday to impose a ten-year mandate on the state to get official clearance in Washington before it could change any election law or procedure.  In addition, the filing in a three-judge district court suggested that such a mandate beyond ten years should be considered if biased conditions continue. (The main filing, a twenty-eight-page document, is here.

• Justice Department Will Ask Court To Reinstate Voting Rights Act In Texas (ThinkProgress) 

 White people believe the justice system is color blind. Black people really don’t. (Wahington Post)

• Poli-Sci Perspective is a weekly Wonkblog feature in which Georgetown University’s Dan Hopkins and George Washington University’s Danny Hayes and John Sides offer an empirical perspective on the issues dominating Washington. In this edition, Sides interviews political scientists Jon Hurwitz and Mark Peffley about their book [Justice in America: The Separate Realities of Blacks and Whites] on how blacks and whites perceive the criminal justice system, and what it implies for Trayvon Martin’s death, George Zimmerman’s acquittal, and the aftermath. The transcript below has been lightly edited. For past posts in the series, head here.

The Dubious Math Behind Stop and Frisk (Atlantic)

• Yesterday Ray Kelly took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to defend NYPD's Stop and Frisk tactics and its indiscriminate spying on Muslim communities: 

John Paul Stevens: The Court & the Right to Vote: A Dissent (Brad DeLong)

Statistics on Congress Data on the U.S. Congress – A Joint Effort from (Brookings and the American Enterprise Institute)

• Data on our first branch of government – in the election and composition of its membership as well as its formal procedure, such as the use of the filibuster, informal norms, party structure and staff. This dataset also documents the increasing polarization of Congress and the demographics of those who serve in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. 

Procrastination (You are Not So Smart)

• The Misconception: You procrastinate because you are lazy and can’t manage your time well.
• The Truth: Procrastination is fueled by weakness in the face of impulse and a failure to think about thinking.

'Crack baby' study ends with unexpected but clear result (Philla)