Politics and views in the United States.

A congresswoman celebrates Biden protections for mixed status families, Louisiana's Ten Commandments law faces an inevitable legal challenge, and a senator moves to repeal the strict 19th century anti-obscenity and anti-abortion Comstock Act.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

It's major.

It literally means keeping families together in mixed status.

It means that U.S. citizens like me who are married to noncitizens won't have to worry.

Illinois Democratic Congresswoman Delia Ramirez has praise for President Joe Biden ending deportation for many migrants without legal status married to citizens.

She says the executive action will lift the fear hanging over half a million mixed status families like hers.

While Ramirez welcomed the news, she acknowledged the order could be broader, noting that while her husband is eligible, his brother is not.

Republican leaders in Louisiana sound eager to be sued for requiring display of the Ten Commandments in all public classrooms.

Elena Odom with the state ACLU says the law strikes at fundamental constitutional rights.

She says that along with putting abortion pills in the same category as morphine represents a real threat to democracy.

If, for example, the government can tell you what religion you have to be, perhaps the government can also tell you that you cannot speak out about a particular issue or else you'll be incarcerated.

Minnesota Democratic Senator Tina Smith is pressing to repeal the Comstock Act, a Victorian-era anti-obscenity law some want to use to block sending abortion pills through the mail.

Having this old, antiquated law sitting out there that we know other radical, anti-choice extremists are going to try to use as a tool, even though they shouldn't, means that it's going to continue to be a threat.

The Supreme Court has upheld a Trump-era tax on foreign earnings.

The court turned back a challenge by a Washington couple who argued it's unconstitutional they be taxed on profits from a business in India.

Joe Miller with the Financial Times tells CBS the narrow 7-2 decision leaves the door open for some Democrats' plans to go after high earners.

He says it's fundamentally buttressing the tax power of the government.

To basically call anything income at some point, or whether it has to say, "Okay, only once you start getting the cash from that income, you as an individual, can we start to tax that."

Retiring North Carolina Democratic Congressman Wiley Nichol is jumping out of airplanes to draw attention to an anti-gerrymandering bill.

Taking questions safe on the ground, Nichol says he's not seeking re-election because he lost his seat in a Republican-led redistricting.

Gerrymandering in this election season is reducing the number of competitive seats.

My seat is gone because of gerrymandering.

We need more fair maps if we want democracy to work right.

The Fair Maps Act calls for redistricting in all 50 states and would establish nonpartisan commissions to do it.

President Biden and former President Donald Trump will face off in a 90-minute CNN debate next week with no studio audience.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not qualify.

I'm Farah Siddiqui for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.