Civil Rights News: Medicaid Expansion May Lower Death Rates; One Million in PA Lack Voter ID; NYC’s ‘Stop and Frisk’ Affects Achievement Gap

Compiled by David Seidman, a Summer 2012 Leadership Conference Education Fund Intern

Medicaid Expansion May Lower Death Rates, Study Says
The New York Times

A recent study by Harvard researchers found that when states expanded Medicaid coverage – government subsidized health care for low-income people – fewer people died. The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, analyzed mortality rates in New York, Maine, and Arizona before and after the states’ Medicaid expansions. The findings are especially relevant following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act, which allows states to opt-in to a mostly federally funded Medicaid expansion.

One Million Voters Don’t Have ID to Vote, Professor Testifies in Harrisburg
Michael Hinkelman
Philadelphia Daily News

On Wednesday, a University of Washington professor testified in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court that one million people, 13 percent of Pennsylvania’s registered voters, lacked the identification required to vote under a new Pennsylvania law. Testifying during the week-long trial, Matt Barreto found that the law, one of the strictest in the country, disproportionately affects voters who are poor, living in cities,  and have less education. Earlier in the week, a Delaware election judge said the new law was unconstitutional and stated that that he would not comply. Professor Barreto’s testimony supports other studies, including one done by the Brennan Center for Justice, which found that the voter identification law would suppress the votes of “seniors, students, minorities and low-income residents.”

To Help Close the Achievement Gap, Address Stop-and-Frisk
Udi Ofer
The New York Times (Opinion)

On Thursday, Udi Ofer of the New York Civil Liberties Union said that the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) “stop-and-frisk” policies – the detaining and searching of people considered suspicious by a police officer – disproportionately targets students of color and negatively impacts student development and learning. A recent analysis by the New York Civil Liberties Union found that 21 percent of NYPD stops targeted young people and that “Black and Latino youth compromise 89 percent of those stops.” One such individual, Angel Ortiz, an eighteen year old high school student, recently sued New York City, challenging the practice in private apartment buildings.