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As the only non-elected branch of our federal government, the Supreme Court usually gets a cursory glance during elections. The American political arena is dominated by the cult of personality. It makes perfect sense that politicians barely mention those stoic judges in black robes. Politicians are too busy screaming about tax cuts, gun control, abortion and immigration. Although the Supreme Court is less mentioned and less noticed by our politicians, the media and the general public, it is still a coequal branch of our government. The Supreme Court has always played a role in electoral politics. Conservatives have always worried more about the Supreme Court than liberals. Some scholars attribute this conservative concern to the liberal rulings of the Court in the 50s, 60s, 70s and early 80s. In 2016, the conservative majority on the Court was threatened after the death of Justice Scalia. Majority Leader McConnell refused to hear President Obamas nominee, Judge Merrick Garland. The majority leader felt the American people should decide the fate of the Court at the ballot box, which further politicized the Court. During the 2018 midterm campaign, President Trump nominated and the Republican-led Senate confirmed Justice Kavanaugh, a confirmation that helped the pink-wave of female Democrats elected all over the country. As the 2020 election heats up, the Supreme Court will inevitably be drawn into the fray. Here are the top ten ways the Supreme Court will come up in the 2020 election.

Gorsuch, Roberts, Kavanaugh and RBG

Last week, after Bostock v. Clayton County, GA, Zarda v. Altitude Express and RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes Inc v. EEOC, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, in frustration over the ruling, called Chief Justice Roberts the worst Supreme Court Justice of all time. Shapiro went on to lambaste Justice Gorsuch as well. Republicans are not happy with what they perceive to be liberal rulings by the Court this term. On the other hand, Democrats will continue to make Kavanaugh a campaign point. Since Mr. Biden has chosen a woman as his running mate, his VP pick and female Democratic congressional candidates will likely continue to criticize that the Republicans confirmed a man accused of a heinous sex crime. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon, is 87 years old and has health problems. If President Trump gets a second term, she may die, and Trump will get to pick her successor. Democrats will do whatever they can to stop that scenario from happening.

More Conservative Justices and Court Packing

After recent defeats at the Supreme Court, President Trump tweeted that we need more Justices. Some people interpret this to mean more conservative Justices, while mostly liberal commentators said Trump was threatening to pack the Supreme Court. They claimed Trumps tweet was a threat to democracy. I find Democrats accusing President Trump of wanting to pack the Court ludicrous because some of the Democratic 2020 presidential candidates were openly saying the Court should be expanded with new justices. Pete Buttigieg put forth a plan to add additional justices to the Court, and Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Andrew Yang indicated that they were open to the idea of packing the Court. I can talk all day about FDRs Court packing plan, the switch in time that saved nine, why expanding the Court endangers the independence of the judiciary and why we need a constitutional amendment establishing nine, and only nine, justices. But thats a story for another day. Fortunately, former Vice President Biden said hes against packing the Court.

Voting Rights

After Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, the Voting Rights Acts power was drastically limited. Now Voter ID laws, purging voter rolls and voting by mail are politically charged issues. With the coronavirus raging across the states, worries about the 2020 election have crossed the minds of elected officials. Some states have already held primaries under threat of the coronavirus. These states are test runs for how to safely run the general election in November. Many states are turning to mail-in ballots as a safe solution. Wisconsin had a lot of legal drama in April revolving around the last-minute implementation of their vote-by-mail program and hundreds of voting precincts being closed. The Court weighed in the night before the election on an application for stay of a lower Court order. The Roberts Court has been especially concerned with staying out of issues of gerrymandering and voting. Chief Justice Roberts views those issues as inherently political and therefore out of the purview of the Court. Voting rights are becoming a new battlefront for culture wars. Expect Democrats to criticize the Court on these issues.

Religious Liberty and LGBT Rights

After the recent Court ruling that employers cannot discriminate against members of the LGBT community, conservatives have been fearing for the future of religious liberty. Justice Gorsuch addressed this concern in the last few paragraphs of that majority opinion. He said that the Court couldnt really address religious liberty claims in those cases since the employers based their defense on the sex portion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It would have been a different matter if the employers defense was based on the Free Exercise Clause. More conservatives and more liberals are viewing religious liberty and LGBT rights at odds with each other. Expect this issue and the Courts jurisprudence in these areas to be a big point of contention in the 2020 presidential and congressional races.

Immigration and DACA

Earlier this week, the Court ruled that the Trump Administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act in the way it ended the DACA program. After the ruling, President Trump aired his grievances on Twitter. He vowed to end the program again but in accordance with the Courts decision. Immigration is one of the main differences between the two parties right now, and selecting justices who will protect immigrants will be a top priority for the Democrats. DACA is at risk to be legally ended unless the Democrats take the White House or Congress enshrines legal status for the Dreamers through federal legislation. Democrats taking the White House is more likely than immigration reform passing Congress.

Abortion

The Court has yet to rule in June Medical Services LLC v. Russo. That decision will be coming in the next few weeks. This case is almost a carbon copy of Whole Womans Health v. Hellerstedt (2016). The factual circumstances regarding the case are eerily similar. The only real difference is the composition of the Court. Logic tells us that the Court will uphold the Hellerstedt precedent and rule in favor of the abortion providers. President Trump and Republicans would ideally like the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, but this case is unlikely to be the vehicle for the conservative bloc to overturn the 1973 decision. If the Court decides to reject the Hellerstedt precedent, they will use this case to start slowly chipping away at Roe and Casey. If the Court rules in favor of the abortion providers again, conservatives will use this ruling as a way to characterize the Court as liberal. President Trump will vow to nominate justices who will overturn Roe. On the other hand, if the Court starts chipping away at Roe, Democrats will use this to prove that they need to take back the White House and Senate to restrict the power of a conservative Court.

Obamacare

Next term, the Court will hear yet another challenge to the Affordable Care Act. Since the Trump Administration is urging the Court to rule the ACA unconstitutional, Democrats are saying the heartless Republicans are trying to take peoples healthcare away during a pandemic. The Democrats are going to use this as another reason to take back the White House and nominate justices willing to uphold the previous Obamacare precedents. Earlier, the Court ruled that the individual mandate was constitutional because Congress enacted it as a tax rather than through the power of the Commerce Clause. President Trump and the conservatives, who are suing, argue that since the individual mandate tax no longer exists, the entire Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. This will probably be a 6-3 or 7-2 decision upholding the ACA next term, but this will be a major campaign issue for the Democrats.

Qualified Immunity

In the late 1960s, the Supreme Court introduced the concept of qualified immunity for law enforcement officers. Qualified immunity intends to protect officers from frivolous lawsuits and financial liability in instances where the officer acted in good faith. In the many years since the late 1960s, qualified immunity has been used to shield law enforcement officers from being held accountable for their actions, especially in cases of police brutality. In recent years, the Court has been unwilling to revisit the issue. The Court ideally wants Congress to take up the issue. Since the brutal murder of George Floyd, the country has been engaged in a conversation about police brutality, racism and the proper role of law enforcement in a free society. Expect Democrats to bring up the Courts role in establishing qualified immunity and their recent unwillingness to revisit the issue.

Gun Control and Gun Rights

The Court ruled that the case was moot in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, New York. Revolving around restrictions on transporting firearms, this was one of the first big gun cases to reach the Court sinceHellerandMcDonald. The Court could have ruled on the side of gun rights and placed legal barriers to future gun control legislation, but the Court decided to rule on the factual circumstances of the case. All the recent mass shootings and the lack of effective legislation in wake of those tragedies have enraged Democrats on the campaign trail. Gun control will be a litmus test for any Democratic presidents nominee to the Court. Any nominee favorable to gun control will be a reason for Republicans to block said nominee.

Campaign Finance

If Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders were the Democratic nominee, campaign finance would likely be a bigger issue. Campaign finance has fallen to the wayside in light of the coronavirus and police brutality. Although campaign finance is not being talked about as much as it was a few months ago, many Democrats still feel passionately about this issue. Citizens United is not disliked by only Democrats. The majority of Republicans, independents and the public at large dislike this ruling. The precedent established by Citizens United has led to the perception of dark money in politics. Although the American people dislike this decision, only Democrats push this issue. Moderate Republicans, such as Senator John McCain who cared about this issue, have either left or been forced out of the Republican Party.

Patrick Johnson is the President of Hope Colleges Pre-Law Society

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Election 2020 and the Supreme Court | The Anchor - The Anchor

After the opening speakers had warmed up the virtual audience, a blue-suited Joe Biden appeared on the live stream with a bookshelf in the background and made what sounded like a campaign pitch to Indians and Indian Americans.

I know it is hard, he said in the message on Indias Independence Day. My heart goes out to all those of you who have been the targets in the rise in hate crimes, the crackdown on legal immigration, including the sudden and harmful actions on H-1B visas that for decades have made America stronger... We will overcome and build back better than ever.

For the Democratic presidential candidate, as for President Donald Trump, Indian Americans are an important political bloc. In addition to making the right noises on the campaign trail, Biden has released a policy document reportedly the first-ever by a presidential candidate aimed exclusively at Indians. Among other things, it mentions his plans to reform the H-1B visa system, increase the number of visas, and eliminate the limits on employment-based green cards by country, which have kept so many Indian families in waiting for too long.

These are important proposals. But immigration lawyers interviewed by Scroll.in expressed both misgivings and optimism about what Bidens presidency could hold. On the whole, though, they believe Biden would be good for Indian immigration to the US, which has begun to sputter in the last few months.

Joe Biden has made it crystal clear that he is going to turn the clock back and eliminate the anti-immigration proclamations/executive orders put in place by [Donald] Trump, said Sheela Murthy, founder and president of Maryland-based Murthy Law Firm, one of the largest immigration firms in the US that has been helping immigrants since at least 1994.

The fact that Joe Biden has recognised America as a nation of immigrants is music to the ears of immigration lawyers like myself, said Murthy.

Bidens declared plans are a far cry from the policies of Trump, who has been staunchly anti-immigration since he ran on the platform of building a border wall. In the last few months alone, his administration has suspended issuance of green cards and several work visas, including H-1B visas.

H-1B applicants have been suffering from the stringent anti-immigration policies since January 2017, explained Jagan Mohan Tamirisa, an immigration consultant at the law firm Chugh LLP.

It began with H-1B visa applications being rejected on flimsy grounds. The applicants were sometimes told there is a new definition of employer-employee relation, and sometimes that documentation seeking itinerary and Statement of Work was inadequately interpreted. Appeals against rejections were dismissed too, said Tamirisa.

Making matters worse, US consulates in India used the excuse of administrative processing to hold up visas. The wait time for receiving green cards for family and employment-based categories increased to 10-15 years or more for Indian Americans, and most months, Tamirisa said, there was little movement on priority dates. For some other employment-based green card categories, lifetime wait was required, he said.

None of this comes as a surprise to Murthy. The fact is that America is a nation of immigrants, she said, and Trump and his team...removing that from the mission statement of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services shows to what lengths theyre willing to go.

If elected, Biden can correct this course.

On day one, if he wants, he can make changes to the Trump administration memos that shrank the rights of H-1B holders, said Murthy. He could change the memos to interpret and issue regulations for his agencies, the Department of Homeland Security that are more consistent with a normal understanding of what is written in the law, she explained.

Biden could also propose to the Congress, the way Trump did, to come up with bipartisan legislation, said Murthy. He could ask it, for instance, to increase H1B numbers and to rethink visa criteria such as high levels of education.

Some of this, admittedly, is already on Bidens agenda. Biden has promised to end the H-1B visa entry ban that is in place till December 31, said Tamirisa. He has also promised to reform the H-1B visa programme, including the wage levels.

On green cards, Biden has vowed to eliminate long wait times, keep family-based immigration intact without removing chain migration, and eventually increase visas, Tamirisa said. He is also committed to getting rid of the public charge rule, which denies green cards to immigrants likely to use certain government benefits.

Despite these pledges, there is a view that even if victorious, Biden wont do much on immigration. As David Nachman, managing attorney at Nachman Phulwani Zimovcak Law Group, explained, Biden will be hamstrung by an obstructionist Republican Party and encumbered with a long list of priorities.

The Democratic [Party] platform is generally pro-immigration, Nachman said. However, as during the Obama administration, the problem is that with everything they try to do on immigration, they meet with tremendous resistance from the Republican Party.

Another constraint he may face is the need to appear moderate. In this election season, the Republicans, including Trump, have painted Biden as a communist, someone who is too far on the left. If he comes to office, he has to moderate...by coming to the middle on issues, Nachman said.

Eliminating Trumps rules would merely preserve the status quo the bigger battle will be trying to pass something new. They will have too many uphill battles to fight, and he will have to decide which ones he wants to wage, said Nachman. I dont think the Democrats generally wage really hard battles on the immigration front, because they have so many othersThat was what happened with Obama. Nachman doesnt see Biden becoming a driving force behind immigration reforms either.

Historically, immigration has been a political hot potato in the US. As in many other countries, both sides of the aisle think the current system is broken, but they continue to use it as a negotiating wedge, acting on it based on political expedience. Muddying the waters further are anti-immigration lobby groups and scaremongering sections of the media.

The result is notable moments and missteps that often defy party stereotypes. In 1990, for instance, President George HW Bush, a Republican, signed the Immigration Act into law, providing family-based immigration visa, creating five distinct employment-based visas [including H-1B visa]...and a diversity visa program. Six years later, President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, signed the disastrous Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which laid the groundwork for the massive deportation machine that exists till today.

The Democratic platform has been pro-immigration, but I dont think that necessarily will last, Nachman said. I think that thats going to be a flash in the pan.

Given the high unemployment numbers, there will likely be resistance from the Republican Party to increasing the number of H-1B visas, unless theres another Y2K, Nachman said.

Biden too will be aware of the need to first upright the economy that has been battered and bruised by the coronavirus pandemic. You have to appease both extremes, said Murthy. On the one hand, you have to conciliate immigrants and recognise the value of H-1B workers and others. But on the other hand, you also do not want to soon after a pandemic where tens of millions of Americans have lost jobs to act like its a party: Lets open up the floodgates to allow immigrants in and increase numbers. Murthy doesnt see H-1B becoming a focus for at least the next year or two until the economy rebounds.

Naresh Gehi, principal attorney at New York-based Gehi & Associates, echoed her prediction. If Democrats win a majority in the US Senate and seize control of the Congress, they could follow through on their promises. But if they dont, talk is cheap.

Moreover, there are other problems facing the country. In the first six-eight months, Gehi said, Biden will have to settle the dust first: the racial divide and police brutality will need to be addressed and the postal services streamlined. Coronavirus and employment will be on top of the agenda...and then comes immigration, said Gehi. Were looking at more than a year.

Also, analysts say, the first category of immigrants to be considered will be DREAMers. Next, executive actions will be lifted, issues such as the guest worker programme tackled, and then finally, Biden may look at comprehensive immigration reform.

If Biden gives in too much on immigration, the Democratic Party wont be re-elected after four years, Gehi believes. Please the left wing as much as you please the right wing if you want to win that election, he said. Theyll have to take things slowly.

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What Joe Bidens presidency might mean for H-1B visas and Indian immigration to the US - Scroll.in

As wildfires rage across California and the West, Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiLongtime House parliamentarian to step down Overnight Health Care: McConnell: Chance for coronavirus deal 'doesn't look that good right now' | Fauci disagrees with Trump that US rounding 'final turn' on pandemic | NIH director 'disheartened' by lack of masks at Trump rally McConnell: Chance for coronavirus deal 'doesn't look that good right now' MORE (D-Calif.) on Thursday pledged that major climate change legislation would be an early part of Democrats 2021 agenda if her party wins back the White House this fall.

So when Joe BidenJoe BidenPhotographer breaches Biden's security perimeter Nonprofit 9/11 Day bashes Trump for airing political ads on Sept. 11 anniversary Hillicon Valley: Dems seek to expand DHS probe after whistleblower complaint | DHS rejects House subpoena for Wolf to testify | Facebook rolls out new features for college students MORE says, Build back better, that better includes building back in a way that is resilient, that is green, that protects the planet, Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. So I dont know if its one bill or it permeates a number of bills, but it is absolutely a priority.

Pelosi specifically singled out the Climate Action Now legislation, passed by the House in May, which would recommit the U.S. to the Paris Agreement on climate change. She pointed to the Democrats Moving Forward green infrastructure package, which would require states to account for climate change before undertaking projects and meet certain greenhouse gas emission goals when they accept funding.

Pelosi also highlighted a report by the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis that Democrats and scientists see as a road map for fighting climate change.

The Speakers remarks come as wildfires in the West have killed at least seven people, destroyed thousands of homes and scorched more than 2 million acres. A day earlier, Pelosis congressional district in San Francisco was blanketed with thick smoke from the fires, blocking out the sun and producing an eerie, surreal landscape that glowed orange.

Pelosi said her phone has been ringing off the hook asfamily and constituents from the Bay Area reach out to her about the conditions.

Its a terrible moment for us in California. Wildfire ash is blanketing all of the areas beyond where the fire is, in the Bay Area, turning the skies to orange, Pelosi said. "It's dark; it's dark there. It's morning and they're waiting for the sun to come up and it's dark all day. They need ... to drive with their headlights on."

The first thing Democrats will do if they control all levers of power in January, Pelosi said, is pass major coronavirus relief legislation to help safely open up our schools and our economy. That would be the No. 1 priority for Democrats, she said.

A pandemic descends upon you and eclipses everything, she said. Preserving the planet for future generations is the challenge to this generation. Were late. America is not a leader in this [with] the Republican presidents, Pelosi said.

President Obama did a great job in Paris with the Paris accords. Of course, President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate panel seeks documents in probe of DHS whistleblower complaint Susan Collins: Trump 'should have been straightforward' on COVID-19 Longtime House parliamentarian to step down MORE defied science, [has a] contempt for science, walked away from that.

In recent weeks, Democrats hopeful they can retain control of the House and take back the White House and Senate have been debating what issues they should tackle first in 2021, whether its immigration reform, health care, gun control or climate change.

But on Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Charles SchumerChuck SchumerMcConnell: Chance for coronavirus deal 'doesn't look that good right now' The Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - Biden, Pence elbow bump at NYC Sept. 11 ceremony FDNY says Treasury withheld .7M from 9/11 first responder fund MORE (D-N.Y.) also turned his attention to the fires wreaking havoc in the West as he rolled out Senate Democrats THRIVE Act addressingclimate change, racial injustice and the economy.

"The proof of the urgency of this situation is literally in the air around us right now. Wildfires are rampaging across the West, across an area the size of the entire state of Connecticut, polluting the lungs of countless Americans. If anyone needed any proof of how disastrously and quickly climate change is affecting our globe, look out West, Schumer told reporters.

"Right now, millions of Americans are witnessing climate change in the ash and orange skies outside their windows. These catastrophic events have instigated and exacerbated climate change, and they're not new, Schumer continued. Worse yet, Trump andthe GOP poured gasoline on the fire by recklessly ripping apart vital environmental regulatory protections and recklessly pursuing more, not less, fossil fuel consumption production."

Rebecca Beitsch contributed.

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Pelosi: Climate change will be 'early part' of Democrats' 2021 agenda | TheHill - The Hill

MIAMI Every four years, without fail, the two mainstream political parties try to win over Latino voters for their respective presidential candidates. The reason is clear: There is no route to the White House without the support of Latinos.

This wooing is carried out with cynicism and fueled by the political ambitions of all concerned. Republicans and Democrats alike seem to rediscover us every four years, then forget about us until the next election. Its such an open and flagrant display of opportunism that some people have called it the Christopher Columbus syndrome.

Historically, Latinos are more likely to vote for Democrats than for Republicans. According to a survey published by Latino Decisions in August, 66 percent of those registered to vote lean toward Joe Biden this year, compared to 24 percent who favor President Donald Trump. If Trump cant attract more Latino voters, he is likely to lose the election.

Given the growing number of Latino voters, the courting process has also become more sophisticated. Years ago, a candidate need only toss out a few words in Spanish Ronald Reagan said little more than Muchas gracias in his speech proclaiming National Hispanic Heritage Week, just weeks before the 1984 election but today specific promises are required, like the one made by Barack Obama during his 2008 campaign to introduce comprehensive immigration reform in Congress a promise he did not keep.

But regardless of who wins Nov. 3, Latinos will shape the future.

In 2020, the ritual is in full effect. Trump boasted about the record low unemployment rates among Latinos before the pandemic. And a naturalization ceremony at the White House was featured during the Republican National Convention, showcasing Trumps alleged commitment to Americas newcomers.

This stands in sharp contrast with his administrations actions: constant attacks on immigrants; separating more than 5,000 children from their parents at the Mexican border, even detaining some in cages; and trying to end protections for the 700,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients.

More recently, Trump has taken to calling immigrants murderers and rapists again. No wonder one of those newly sworn-in Americans who attended the White House ceremony, Robert Ramrez, originally from Bolivia, wasnt willing to say he would vote for Trump. I will vote, he told Univision, but my vote is private.

Democrats are also good at making promises, and lots of them. Their nominee has pledged something millions of Latino immigrants have been waiting decades for. This is my promise to you, Biden posted on Twitter. On Day 1, Ill send a bill to Congress that creates a clear road map to citizenship for Dreamers and 11 million undocumented people who are already strengthening our nation. Its long overdue.

Yet when Biden was serving as vice president, the Obama administration not only failed to offer comprehensive immigration reform, it deported over 3 million undocumented residents. Bidens promise is fundamental to making right that mistake and winning back the trust of the Latino community. Even so, those who think Democrats take Latino votes for granted remain wary, which could hurt turnout for Biden.

This year, a projected 32 million Latinos will be eligible to vote, making them the largest racial or ethnic minority ever to participate in a presidential election. And for the first time, Latinos will outnumber Black voters, according to the Pew Research Center.

The power of Latino voters is evident in states such as Florida and Arizona. Had the Latino turnout been higher in those states in 2016, Trump might not be president. But over half of all Latinos eligible to vote didnt do so. Consequently, history was written in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Despite the racist insults he hurled at Mexican immigrants during his last campaign (They are bringing drugs. They are bringing crime. Theyre rapists.), Trump won 28 percent of the Latino vote. Though not even close to the 66 percent that voted for Hillary Clinton, it was enough to win him the election. Clearly, even insults couldnt convince that small slice of the Latino electorate that Trump, who promised economic opportunity, a wall and a crackdown on dictatorships in Cuba and Venezuela, was unfit for office.

I myself have surfed the great Latino wave. When I arrived in the United States in the early 1980s, fewer than 15 million Latinos lived in this country; now we number more than 60 million. And in less than three decades, we will be at

100 million, according to estimates.

These numbers mean no candidate will be able to achieve power in the United States without Latino support. Karl Rove, chief adviser to President George W. Bush, understood this perfectly. In 2004, Bush won 44 percent of the Latino vote, more than any other Republican presidential candidate ever. It was the first time Republicans tried to divide the Latino vote and prove the phrase attributed to Ronald Reagan: Latinos are Republican. They just dont know it yet.

But instead of continuing their efforts to court Latino voters, Republicans turned their backs. As a candidate in 2016, Trump announced he would build his wall at the border, and that Mexico would pay for it. This is not how to win the hearts of Latinos.

The Latino vote is increasingly powerful, diverse and sophisticated. And in exchange for that vote, which can make or break a president, the Latino community expects concrete benefits. A few words in Spanish and a few empty promises are no longer enough.

This originally ran in the New York Times.

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Latino voters are key to winning the White House - Santa Fe New Mexican

Capital & Mainis an award-winning publication that reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.The American Prospectis co-publishing this piece.

The good news for those celebrating Labor Day this year is that unions are still legal. Other than that, the American labor movement continues to absorb the damage brought on by a string of rulings from the Supreme Court and a hostile National Labor Relations Board, along with endless lawsuits, courtesy of a well-funded right to work movement. Call the situation Taft-Hartley by a thousand cuts.

Not surprisingly, most unions are supporting the Democratic presidential candidate with an unprecedented urgency. Not only was Joe Biden's acceptance speech the first in decades to even mention the word union in any positive sense, but Biden also spoke tantalizingly of an America reinvigorated by newly-empowered unions.

That had sounded like a real possibility more than a decade ago, when then-Vice President Biden led the effort to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that would have allowed workers at a company to choose a union simply by signing cards that expressed their desire to form a union local and bargain with management for a contract. EFCA fizzled in the Senate but has since been superseded by the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), which shares a desire for card check organizing protections and was passed by the Democrat-held House this year. Labor leaders, including the AFL-CIO's executive vice president, Tefere Gebre, are pushing hard for the PRO Act's ultimate passage by the Senate and, presumably, a President Biden signature.

Capital & Main spoke to Gebre to find out the state of the unions on this years Labor Day and where he sees them in this momentous election year. As a teenager Gebre, who speaks in a rapid-fire staccato, fled his native Ethiopia to come to America after walking 93 days through a Sudanese desert. He arrived in Los Angeles and quickly became acquainted with his new country's racial dynamics. He says that while commuting to Cal Poly Pomona from L.A., he was pulled over by police no fewer than 22 times.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Capital & Main: Where do you see the labor movement at this rather historic moment?

Tefere Gebre: It has been a really, really uplifting time. We have come a long way from the air traffic controllers going on a strike and being fired to teachers in ruby red West Virginia saying, "Enough is enough," and going on a strike and getting everything they wanted.

Given what we know about congressional gridlock, what do you think organized labors practical wish list should be if Joe Biden becomes president?

Gebre: The 2020 platform of the Democratic Party is the most pro-labor it has ever been. But the onus is on us [to make sure that] once we get him elected, we don't get bought off by coffee at the White House. Bought off by Air Force One rides. That we ask for concrete change in the rules that apply to workers. It's not platitudes that we're looking for. We're asking for changing the laws and leveling the balance of power in this country that's so tilted towards corporations and the billionaire class.

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Capital & Main: If you mean card-checking union elections, that didnt get very far in 2009 under the Democrats.

Gebre: We can get the PRO Act through the House. We need a Senate that also would pass it. That means amending the rules of the filibuster. Democracy functions with 50 plus one, but if a senator just files for filibuster everything is killed. Everything dies. A senator should not have the same ability to block legislation when they have less than a million people in their state, as a senator from California, right? In order to pass the PRO Act, in order to get a Green New Deal and so many other things, we have to have senators who are willing and gutsy enough to actually reform the Senate. The Republicans appoint Supreme Court justices with 51 votes. If that's good enough for them, 51 votes should be enough for passing the PRO Act.

More from Capital & Main

Capital & Main: Do you see any problems, though, with trade policies in a Biden administration?

Gebre: Were not against trade. The labor movement should embrace trade. We live in a global economy. The measure of [whether] a Biden administration is any different from the Clinton administration, from the Obama administration, is in how many Wall Street people will be in the White House. That is the real key. Who would be his trade ambassador? Ambassadors for trade and for trade negotiations, in previous administrations, Republican and Democrat, they all came from Goldman Sachs, Wall Street. Workers just want to be at the table, negotiating.

Capital & Main: What is the biggest bone in labor's throat right now? Is it the Supreme Courts Janus ruling? The courts decisions leading up to Janus? The National Labor Relations Board?

Gebre: I wouldn't say it's Janus we have lost less than a half percent of membership because of Janus. I would say it's how rules are set up, [its about] money and politics, what the NLRB does. Employers are allowed to break the rules without any kind of penalty on them. If we don't fix our democracy entirely, taking money out of politics, one man one vote, those kinds of things, we're still going to find ourselves in trouble. At the end of the day, it's about power.

Capital & Main: Foreign-born workers were so vital to the labor movement in the 1930s can immigrants flip the script again for union growth?

Gebre: They are. We have unions right now who would crumble if it was not for immigrant workers. That's why the issue of immigration reform, the issue of criminal justice reform, the issue of social justice in this country has to be on the tip of the spear of the labor movement in everything we do. Because if we don't take care of that, we are actually dying out.

Capital & Main: In news stories from swing states, working people always seem to be complaining about Trump, but then at the end of their interviews, they say they're still going to vote for him in November. Why?

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Gebre: For 40 years, we have told our members in the Midwest, in the Rust Belt states, Unfair trade agreements are killing you. We have been mobilizing our members against draconian trade agreements. That was a void created by our own people, by Democrats, that Donald Trump filled. Donald Trump used all of those issues against Hillary Clinton.

We elected Democrat after Democrat after Democrat, and things never changed for workers. Sooner or later they're just going to say, "I'm going to try something new." In 2016, Donald Trump was that something new.

Capital & Main: Do you worry that attacks against police unions may have unintended consequences that they could be used to attack unions in general?

Gebre: Thats something that we have to deal with. On the one hand, as a labor leader, I would never say any worker does not deserve a union, including police. And you're talking to someone who has had a cop put a gun in my mouth.

That being said, bargaining agreements should not be shields for killers. About 13 of our international unions, one way or another, represent law enforcement officers. We are engaging with those unions in a very, very deep conversation about how we bring change to them, how we become a catalyst for that change to happen.

[AFL-CIO] President [Richard] Trumka just created a racial justice task force, which I'm privileged to serve on. We have police officers themselves sitting on that task force. [Our] job is to actually get to the bottom of racial inequality in this country. That task force has been very vocal, saying that its job is not only about the police the police are there to police what society created. The median wealth of a white American household is about $134,000. The average wealth of an African American is $11,000. Until you fix that, it doesn't matter how many precincts of police departments you have fixed -- you will never get to the bottom of it.

Capital & Main: Every four years there seems to be talk that labor should not ally itself with any one party, because by doing so it gives up leverage with the Democrats. Does forming a Labor Party make sense to you?

Gebre: We already have a Labor Party. I long for the day [when] we would have two parties that compete for our attention. Unfortunately, the Republican Party has no interest in even addressing workers issues. That leaves us with no other option than to naturally do what we do with the Democratic Party.

The problem I don't know if you'd quote me on this or not, but it's Corporate Party A and Corporate Party B. Even if we put about 98 percent of our resources into the Democratic Party, at the end of the day we end up being less than 30 percent of the resources they need to structurally win an election or be competitive in an election.

The other 70 percent comes from the same resource that Republicans get their money -- corporations. Part of our goal has to be, in addition to advocating for one man one vote, we have to find a way to amend or get rid of Citizens United, to take money out of politics.

Capital & Main: Regardless of who wins November 3, what will be your movements number one goal on November 4?

Gebre: I think you already know I'm an immigrant. I came to this country risking my life because I believed in that shiny house on the hill in that place of liberty, that if you apply yourself, you can make yourself whatever you want to be if you are an American. Most of that works for me. But I'm worried. I don't know if we still have that country anymore. When we are locking kids in cages and we are making immigrants others, we become an ordinary country instead of the hope and aspiration of the best and the brightest in the world.

When I hear the national anthem -- the land of the free and the home of the brave -- I don't see soldiers. I don't see fighter jets flying or anything. I see the brave immigrants, the brave people around the world who want to apply themselves, wanting to be free by coming to this country.

If we close that door, we're not an exceptional nation anymore. That worries the hell out of me. Empires fall, and that could be the vehicle that makes this empire fall.

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State of the Unions 2020 - The American Prospect