Louisiana

Think that school policies that shun pregnant students and push them out of school are a thing of the past?

Think again.

A public charter school in Delhi, Louisiana says that students who they “suspect of being pregnant” must submit to a pregnancy test. And, according to their written policy, “if the test indicates that the student is pregnant, the student will not be permitted to attend classes…” As we outlined in our report, A Pregnancy Test for Schools, policies like the Louisiana one clearly violate the U.S. Constitution and Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination in schools.

Earlier this week, the ACLU sent the school a letter demanding that the school immediately end the practice of forced pregnancy tests and stop excluding pregnant students. There is also a petition asking the school to remove the discriminatory policy. Read more »

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to confirm two more judicial nominees and increased the number of female district court judges serving on the federal bench. Miranda Du was confirmed 59-39 to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, and Susie Morgan was confirmed 96-1 to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Du is the first Asian Pacific American to serve as an Article III judge in Nevada. Her family fled Vietnam when she was nine years old and settled in the United States. Du achieved a successful civil litigation career, becoming one of the Mountain States Rising Stars in 2009 and a partner at her firm, McDonald Carano Wilson. She is a symbol of the American success story for many and is a part of the growing Asian Pacific American population in Nevada, now 9 percent of the state’s population. Read more »