Trump Keeps Naming Unqualified Judicial Nominees. The Senate Judiciary Committee this week held a hearing on Ninth Circuit nominee Lawrence VanDyke -- an extreme nominee who lacks the support of his home-state senators and who received a Not Qualified rating from the American Bar Association (ABA) because he “is arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-today practice including procedural rules.” The following day, the committee advanced Missouri district court nominee Sarah Pitlyk, despite her unanimously Not Qualified rating from the ABA. We strongly oppose both nominees. In better news: Second Circuit nominee Steven Menashi and Fifth Circuit nominee Halil Ozerden did not receive their scheduled votes (again) on Thursday.

After Facebook Criticism, Twitter Bans Political Ads. In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the platform would stop all political advertising. The announcement came after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has faced intense criticism -- from civil rights organizations, members of Congress, and others -- for his platform’s policy of exempting politicians’ speech from its community standards. As reported this week, Zuckerberg will meet with civil rights groups (including us) next week about the policy.

Congress Considers Pregnancy Discrimination Bill. The House Education and Labor Committee recently heard testimony on the bipartisan Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which would help strengthen existing federal protections against pregnancy discrimination and promote the economic security, health, and well-being of pregnant people and their families. On the 41st anniversary of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act this week, we wrote on our blog about why Congress must fulfill the promise of that landmark law by passing the PWFA. Read more here.