Cory Booker: Trump ‘doesn’t see himself as subject to the rule of law’

During an appearance on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 show, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said that he is concerned by President Donald Trump's behavior and troubled by the reports that he attempted to fire special counsel Robert Mueller.

Jemele Hill Statement On leaving ESPN's 'SportsCenter'

Jemele Hill, the “SportsCenter” anchor who found herself in the middle of a political firefight last year after tweeting about President Trump, is leaving “SportsCenter” to work at The Undefeated, ESPN’s sub-site focused on race and culture. Sports Illustrated reported that the move is believed to be Hill’s decision. Read Hill's statement on her departure below:

NAACP sues Homeland Security over Haiti immigration policy

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s decision to rescind the Temporary Protective Status (TPS) designation for Haitian immigrants discriminates against immigrants of color, in violation of the Fifth Amendment, according to a new lawsuit filed today on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

The lawsuit claims that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), former Acting DHS Secretary Elaine C. Duke, and current DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielson took irrational and discriminatory government action, denying Haitian immigrants their right to due process and equal protection under the Fifth Amendment.  The NAACP, acting on behalf of its Haitian members who are TPS protected, argues that DHS intended to discriminate against Haitian immigrants living in the United States because of their race and national origin.

“This is a simple case. Our democracy rests on the bedrock principle that every person is equal before the law. Governmental decisions that target people based on racial discrimination violate our Constitution,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, President & Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. “The decision by the Department of Homeland Security to rescind TPS status for Haitian immigrants was infected by racial discrimination. Every step taken by the Department to reach this decision reveals that far from a rational and fact-based determination, this decision was driven by calculated, determined and intentional discrimination against Haitian immigrants.”

“The action by the Department of Homeland Security to rescind TPS status for Haitian immigrants is clearly racially motivated,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO. “The U.S. Constitution prohibits singling out certain immigrants for harsh treatment based on their skin color and/or ethnicity.  But more than that, basic fairness militates against this draconian action taken by DHS under the direction of President Trump.”

The lawsuit seeks to enjoin DHS’s November 2017 decision to rescind Temporary Protective Status for Haitian immigrants, as it reflects “an egregious departure from the TPS statute’s requirements and the intent to discriminate on the basis of race.” The lawsuit also asks the Court to declare that DHS violated the United States Constitution and the rule of law in rescinding the Haitian TPS, and to declare the action void and without legal force.

As evidence of the intent to discriminate, the lawsuit cites public reporting that DHS sought crime data on Haitians with TPS, as well as information on how many Haitian nationals were receiving public benefits. The lawsuit alleges that the Department’s efforts to gather this specific data on Haitian TPS designees “trades on false anti-Black stereotypes about criminality and exploitation of public benefits, and suggests the effort to manufacture a public safety rationale for the planned rescission.”

The complaint further alleges that President Trump’s public hostility toward immigrants of color was a contributing factor in the decision to rescind Haitian TPS. For example, in a recently reported White House meeting with several U.S. Senators, Trump disparaged a draft immigration plan that protected people from Haiti, El Salvador and some African countries, and noted his preference for immigrants from mostly white European countries.  Earlier in 2017, the President suggested that Haitians “all have AIDS,” upon learning that 15,000 Haitians had received visas to enter the United States. He reportedly asked, “Why do we need more Haitians?”

“It’s disheartening to see the Haitian community targeted and mistreated in this way, but it also is not surprising,” said Raymond Audain, Senior Counsel at LDF. “This decision reflects a shameful and persistent pattern of conduct by this Administration in which racial stereotypes drive policy decisions.”

Haitian immigrants first received Temporary Protective Status in 2010 as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to assist the country after it was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, one of the deadliest earthquakes in history. Haiti’s TPS designations have been extended multiple times due to many factors, including multiple hurricanes and a cholera outbreak. On November 20, 2017, the DHS announced its plans to terminate temporary protective status for Haiti, which would go into effect in May 2019, ignoring bipartisan pleas to extend TPS designation for Haitian immigrants.

“Our great nation fought a civil war to establish the bedrock principle that the government may not discriminate against any person, whether citizen or non-citizen, based on that person’s race or ethnicity.  The NAACP stands ready to challenge any violation of that principle, as today’s action clearly demonstrates,” said Bradford M. Berry, General Counsel of the NAACP.

The full complaint can be read here.

Get Out receives four Academy Award nominations

Jordan Peele's horror film Get Out, which has received praise for its performances and thought-provoking take on race in America, received four Academy Award nominations Tuesday, including one for best picture.

Peele made history becoming the first black director to receive nominations in the writing, directing, and producing categories for his first feature film.

Peele tweeted his gratitude to the fans that made the movie both a critical and commercial success:

Right now I’m just thinking about everyone who bought a ticket and told someone else to. You did this. Thank you. ✊🏾

— Jordan Peele (@JordanPeele) January 23, 2018

Get Out was nominated for:

Best Picture

Directing: Jordan Peele

Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Kaluuya

Original Screenplay: Jordan Peele

Virginia Lt. governor protest honoring Confederate general

Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, the second African-American to serve in that role, stepped off the dais where he presides over the state Senate on Monday when Republicans moved to adjourn in memory of Confederate Gen. Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson.

“It’s a personal decision for me,” Fairfax said afterward. “There are people in Virginia history that I think it’s appropriate to memorialize and remember in that way, and others that I would have a difference of opinion on.”

Fairfax was going to do the same last Friday after learning about plans honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, whose birthday is a state holiday. In the mid-1980s, Virginia began marking Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday the same as Lee-Jackson-King Day. In 2000, Gov. Jim Gilmore called for separating them.

Fairfax said that when he was sworn into the statewide office on Jan. 13, he kept in his pocket a reproduction of a document freeing members of the Fairfax family in Virginia from slavery in 1798.

“I felt … in honor of my family and in honor of the journey that Virginia has taken and so many others have taken for progress, that I would prefer not to preside over those adjournment motions.”