Everything you missed at Ms. this week.
Ms. Weekly Digest | June 20, 2020

Dear John,

June is often a blockbuster month for Supreme Court decisions. As the Court’s term comes to a close, some of their most anticipated decisions are often handed down just as summer recess begins. In the final weeks of June 2012, the Affordable Care Act was upheld. Around the same time in 2015, their ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges guaranteed constitutional protection of same-sex marriage.

This June has been no exception, as we have anxiously anticipated decisions in multiple hugely impactful Supreme Court cases. This week brought two such cases to a close (for now, at least)—and two rulings of good news!

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ employees from workplace discrimination and on Thursday, the highest Court in the land blocked the Trump administration from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. These are two significant victories for justice and equality.

And these rulings come at the same time that significant Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality, systemic racism and white supremacy have continued across the country and are forcing a necessary, long overdue reckoning—one that will hopefully bring about significant reform and lasting change. No longer can we allow the pretense to stand that the United States offers liberty and justice for all. We must continue the fight.

Meanwhile, we await the Court’s decision in two other hugely consequential cases—June Medical Services LLC v. Russo and Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania. These cases could determine whether women in Louisiana and in other states with similar restrictions on abortion providers will have access to critical reproductive healthcare services, and whether employers can use so-called moral objections to opt out of providing contraceptive insurance coverage to their employees.

But this week’s Supreme Court cases, in tandem with ongoing protests for Black lives, fill me with such hope for the future of this country. In a dark time, they show us that we must keep fighting for justice. And that we can win.

In our work to bring readers substantive, unique reporting that fuels the feminist movement, the Ms. team has tried always to remember that the word ally is a verb and not a noun, as it is more commonly used. An ally is not something you are, it is something you do—and continue to do. To ally is a lifelong practice. Let us use this week’s Supreme Court victories as fuel for the fire of our collective ongoing fights for justice.

BY ADAM P. ROMERO | On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ employees from workplace discrimination. This is a monumental decision that will impact the lives of millions of Americans.

BY MARIELENA HINCAPIÉ | On Thursday, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program.

BY JANELL HOBSON | "George Floyd was killed over an imagined counterfeit $20 in a country that can’t keep its promise to place Tubman on the $20, counterfeit security issues or otherwise. Which is the real counterfeit here? George Floyd’s $20, Harriet Tubman’s $20 redesign or a country that still pretends there is 'liberty and justice for all’?”

BY JACKSON KATZ | Three officers of the Minneapolis Police Department—all adult men—were in a position to interrupt their fellow officer's violence and save George Floyd’s life. But none did. Why? How do norms in male-dominated peer cultures like police departments operate to keep men silent, even when they know something is wrong?

BY GEORGETOWN INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN, PEACE & SECURITY | Women-led nations have been praised for their effective response to COVID-19 and relatively low mortality rates. So what are these women leaders doing differently?

BY JANICE RHOSHALLE LITTLEJOHN | "This Juneteenth—June 19—marks the 155th celebration of the liberation for African Americans... And while the trauma of legalized dehumanization of Black Americans continues still, I am asserting the right to my joy."

BY CYNTHIA RICHIE TERRELL | Our friend, Cynthia Terrell, founder and executive director of RepresentWomen, is back with another installment of her weekly column, rounding up some of her favorite stories about women’s representation in the news this week.

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