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I attended the oral argument in the Voting Rights Act case before the U.S. Supreme Court, and I came away even more convinced that the Court should uphold the contested parts of the law.

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act requires that covered states "preclear" their proposed election law changes with federal officials. Nine states plus parts of seven others are "covered," and many of these areas are in the South.

The current "Debt for Diploma" system of funding higher education is not working, as Demos has documented. It leaves too many young people weighed down by loans and undermines our nation's economic future. Now there is yet another reason to worry about the failings of the U.S.

Today, the Supreme Court heard argument in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, a case challenging the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Brenda Wright, Vice President for Legal Strategies at Demos, released the following statement:

>>> Blog: The Voting Rights Act Should Survive <<<

While much of the country’s attention is focused on the need for job growth, a new report to be released Monday, March 4 by national public policy organization Demos reveals the ways in which the use of credit history in hiring acts as a significant barrier to employment and may lead to discriminatory hiring practices, particularly for people of color and the long-term unemployed.

Young adults are pulling back on credit-card debt for similar reasons, said Amy Traub, a senior policy analyst at Demos, a public policy research organization. It found that Americans age 25 to 34 cut their credit card debt in half between 2008 and 2012.

All around them, young adults are seeing signs of financial distress -- job insecurity, foreclosures, high college costs. That's making them think twice about applying for loans, she said.

President Obama and some members of Congress have made waves recently with calls for voting reform. But your access to the ballot probably depends more on what’s going on at the nearest statehouse.

With state legislative sessions well underway, lawmakers across the country have unleashed a raft of bills tweaking their states’ voting systems. Here are a few issues to keep an eye on.

Evidence keeps coming in that the culture war is winding down. Most recently, according to Politico:

More than 80 of the nation’s most prominent Republicans — including top officials of all recent Republican administrations and presidential campaigns – on Tuesday came out publicly in favor of a constitutional right to gay marriage in a brief to be filed this week with the Supreme Court.

Despite only being 35 years old, it might be time to retire the 401(k).

The 401(k) started out as a tax loop hole to supplement workers' savings and has grown to become Americans’ main retirement savings tool.  But many baby boomers are finding their retirement in tatters and aren’t able to leave the workforce due to grossly inadequate savings.

What's problematic about the RATE Coalition's arguments is that it doesn't acknowledge basic facts about U.S. corporate taxes. 

For the third consecutive year since the Great Recession, corporate profits soared in 2012. The FDIC report on fourth quarter 2012 bank earnings, released today, shows banks earning near-record highs. The headline numbers from the report are shocking.

Despite bans on the practice in 15 states, payday loan companies have thrived, finding a powerful ally in major banks like JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. That is the finding of the Pew Charitable Trusts in the second edition of their Payday Lending in America series.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, plenty of Americans have seen their credit scores tank. But can that really affect your ability to get a job? Yes, because employers increasingly are relying on workers' credit histories in screening applications.

In 2002, law professor David Yamata suggested that "[l]egal actions by a few bold individuals could trigger a more widespread awareness of the legal plight of student interns." Mistreated interns now have their own book-length expose' and are indeed suing employers in the fashion,

A new report from a Wisconsin state agency makes clear that Same Day Registration is not just a low-cost way to make voting more accessible. It can even be a budget-saver.

The report from the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board dealt a blow to advocates of repealing the state’s Same Day Registration policy. It pegged the cost of such a change as high as $14.5 million. Some of the costs are one-time expenditures, but many will be ongoing.

I am leaning in just a little as I write this. OK, I’m not. But I am feeling a little sick as I ponder the next unpleasant installment of the “mommy wars” that’s hurtling toward us.

Recently, a lot of attention was given to the prediction that the U.S. would become energy independent by 2035. Shale oil and gas driliing is the main reason U.S. energy production has increased and shale gas now accounts for 40 percent of all gas production.

Despite millennials' lingering reputation as financial delinquents, it turns out not everyone drowning in credit card debt has a newly-printed college diploma and a stack of student loan bills.

A recent article by Reuters' Chris Taylor reveals baby boomers are facing an even steeper road to financial freedom. 

Already, the biggest banks in the U.S. are huge. The largest 0.2 percent of institutions — just 12 mega-banks — control 69 percent of total bank assets. The 20 biggest banks hold assets equal to 84.5 percent of the nation’s entire economic output.