Short Reads

Email Sign Up Receive our weekly newsletter featuring new analysis on politics, social trends, religion, the media and more. Sign Up Now The Supreme Court today struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), saying in a 5-4 ruling that the federal government can’t disparage marriages recognized by the states. The Court also declined […]

Four-in-ten Catholics say there is "a lot" of conflict between their personal religious beliefs and homosexuality.

Abortion opponents in the Texas state legislature have been busy this week trying to pass a bill aimed at banning most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The proposal, which passed the House on Monday, is now facing a Democratic filibuster in the state Senate. If the Senate approves it before the end of the legislative session at midnight and Republican Gov. Rick Perry (as promised) signs it, Texas would become the 13th state in recent years to enact such a restriction.

The American Society of News Editors released its annual newsroom census figures today showing a severe decline in the size of newspaper staffs..

For nearly three decades researchers have known that better-educated adults are living increasingly longer than those with less education. (Kids: One more reason to stay in school.) Then in the mid-1980s a new trend emerged: The education-mortality gap began growing much faster among women than among men. By 2006, white women without a high school […]

The Supreme Court today voided a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, meaning several states and local jurisdictions no longer have to get federal approval for changes to their voting laws and procedures. The 5-4 opinion, written by Chief Justice Roberts, didn’t strike down the “preclearance” provision of the law itself, but rather the decades-old […]

Two Pew Research Center surveys -- one of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender adults and the other of the American public -- found a common thread: that society as a whole has become more accepting of gays and lesbians.

Around eight-in-ten Senegalese have a favorable view of the United States

Currently, 35% of Americans say the increase in gay and lesbian couples raising children is a bad thing, a decline from recent years.

While Americans overwhelmingly agree that society should ensure equal opportunities for all, the divide over affirmative action programs remains as wide as ever.