We have a response:

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the decision of the Department of Justice to permit employment discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming people. This appalling and demeaning decision ignores the plain fact that gender identity and gender expression are fundamental parts of a person's humanity.

This administration’s permissive stance toward discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming people, as well as other members of the LGBTQ community, is immoral and undermines our best traditions of inclusion. This decision is a reminder why Congress must pass the Equality Act (H.R. 2282/S. 1006), which would codify the rights of all people, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Reform Movement is strongly committed to the inclusion and equality for all people, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation. We stand firmly against any attempts to undermine the Civil Rights Act and the protections it affords Americans. As Jews, we are taught that all people are created in the image of God, or b’tzelem Elohim. We strongly oppose this latest order from the Department of Justice, its narrow view of who is worthy of protection before the law, and the invitation to discriminate that it represents.

--Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

A Texas civil judge has temporarily blocked the state from turning over voter information to the White House's election integrity commission out of fears that the data won't be adequately protected.

The Daily Beast reported Tuesday that Judge Tim Sulak of Travis County's 353rd Civil District Court issued a temporary restraining order on Tuesday that told the state not to turn over the data because there are not "appropriate precautions to safeguard the privacy and security of that information."


While the decision isn't final, the Tuesday ruling deals a stumbling block to the commission, which is looking to compile voter data from across the country in order to build a database to identify potential instances of fraud. Texas has more registered voters than any other state besides California, so its data is a crucial piece of the database that the commission hopes to create.

ISIS's widely discounted claim of responsibility for the Las Vegas massacre is indicative of the terror group's increasing desperation as it loses strongholds in Syria and Iraq, according to terrorism-watchers.

By making apparent false claims of responsibility ISIS is becoming "somewhat of a joke among the rank-and-file of the international terrorist elite," said Peter Vincent, a former official at the Department of Homeland Security and a counter-terrorism expert.

ISIS claimed Monday that Las Vegas gunman Stephen Craig Paddock — who killed 59 people and injured more than 500 — was a "soldier of the Islamic State," but gave no evidence to back up its claim.

Citing a "security source," the group's media arm, Amaq, said the 64-year-old retiree from Mesquite, Nevada, carried out the attack "in response to calls to target coalition countries." Unusually, ISIS doubled down on the claim, releasing a second statement claiming Paddock had recently converted to Islam and identified him as "Abu Abd El Bar."

The FBI quickly dismissed ISIS's claims, saying at this stage there was no evidence Paddock had a connection to any international terrorist group.

Between the fraudulent national voter suppression commission run by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and a plethora of state-level voter suppression and voter ID laws, many U.S. citizens are encountering roadblocks on their way to the voting booth.

The American Civil Liberties Union aims to change all that.

Coming less than a week after #NationalVoterRegistrationDay (not that we should limit that to a day, a week, a month, or a year), the ACLU is launching its own nationwide events to promote and expand voting rights and increase voting participation. The events are being started in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, since voting rules are established at the state level.

Oct. 1 marks the start of the ACLU “Let People Vote” campaign. Ground Zero is in Lawrence, Kansas, right in Kobach’s backyard, since he’s been one of the driving forces of voter suppression.