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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Young Leaders Call for Senate Hearings on Supreme Court Nominee

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Thursday, May 19, 2016   

HARRISBURG, Pa. - National youth organization leaders and members of Congress are releasing an open letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, calling for a hearing and vote on the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court. Congressional Republicans continue to insist they will not consider President Obama's choice of a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Eric Lampman, public affairs and policy manager for young people at People for the American Way Foundation, says he's standing with others in front of the Supreme Court today to send a message to Senator Pat Toomey.

"Listen to the voices of young people who are working very hard, doing their job," he said. "He needs to do his job as well, to serve us as constituents, and also to serve the interests of the federal judiciary and the American people."

According to Lampman, two-thirds of registered Pennsylvania voters believe the Senate should give Judge Garland a hearing and an up-or-down vote on his nomination.

With only eight members, the court has already issued tie decisions which cannot establish legal precedents. Lampman points out that younger Americans will be directly affected by at least one case before the court this term.

"Young people have a real stake in these issues and we do understand the ways that the court is impacting the way that we walk through the world each and every day," he added.

It's been two months since President Obama nominated Garland to the court.

Senate Republicans insist that, in an election year, the selection of a new Supreme Court justice should be up to the next president. But Lampman says nationally, 70 percent of voters believe the refusal to hold a hearing is politically motivated.

"We are justified in wanting a fully functional judiciary that enables us to protect our rights and seek justice and I think that doesn't just apply in election years," he said. "It should apply all the time."


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