Fact Sheet

On January 18, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a lower federal court had erred in striking down in its entirety a New Hampshire law requiring parental consent for minors seeking an abortion. The case, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, involves a decision by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals to […]

Download the Decision Analysis Download the Legal Backgrounder On January 17, 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that the 1970 Controlled Substances Act (CSA) does not give the U.S. attorney general the authority to prohibit Oregon doctors from prescribing lethal doses of drugs to certain terminally ill patients who want to end their own lives. The […]

On November 30, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, a case that challenges New Hampshire’s Parental Notification Prior to Abortion Act. Ayotte is the first abortion case the court has taken up in five years, and it is the first such case that […]

On October 5, 2005, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Gonzales v. Oregon, a case arising from the conflict between Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act and the U.S. attorney general’s interpretation of the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Oregon’s law, which was twice approved by the state’s voters, permits physicians to prescribe […]

Almost 150 years after Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking theory on the origins of life, Americans are still fighting over evolution. If anything, the controversy is growing in both size and intensity. Recent polls indicate that challenges to Darwinian evolution have substantial support among the American people. According to a July 2005 survey sponsored by […]

Read the Pew Forum Discussion transcript The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a federal law that aims to protect the religious freedom of inmates and others held in state and local institutions. The unanimous decision in Cutter v. Wilkinson, issued on May 31, reverses […]

About 1.5 million Latinos are eligible to vote in Florida, representing approximately 14 percent of the more than 11 million eligible voters in the state, according to analysis of data from Current Population Surveys conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census in 2003.

The rapid growth of the Latino population has been a subject of intense public attention since the 2000 Census reported a 58% increase over the 1990 total and later Census Bureau estimates concluded that Hispanics had surpassed African Americans in number.

This survey brief compares the views and experiences of Latinos living in five states with large Latino populations. Topics include country of origin, identity, citizenship, politics and discrimination.

This survey brief explores the concept of assimilation and the role of language in explaining this process.