where science and ethics intersect with politics
Record-high detention numbers are reshaping the U.S. immigration landscape in 2025. ICE is now holding more than 65,000 people—most with no criminal convictions—marking the largest detainee population in the agency’s history. A year-to-year comparison shows detention levels nearly doubling since December 2024, raising urgent questions about enforcement priorities, capacity, and the human impact of prolonged civil detention.
On December 7, America remembers Pearl Harbor—but remembrance means more than ritual. The Humane Herald examines the war’s true cost: human suffering, environmental devastation, emergency powers, and the birth of a militarized state. To honor history, we must confront the systems that make war inevitable—and choose a humane alternative.
Abolition Day marks the ratification of the 13th Amendment—an end to legal slavery, but not an end to the forces that shaped it. For the Humane Party, this day is both remembrance and responsibility, a reminder that abolition was a beginning and that the deeper work of justice remains unfinished.
A leader who kills a puppy and then proudly markets the story is not an anomaly — she is a symptom of a political culture that confuses cruelty with strength. The Kristi Noem scandal is not about a single dog; it is a mirror held up to America’s comfort with harm, hierarchy, and disposability.
In the wake of escalating global conflicts, the rules of war remain clear — yet increasingly ignored. This article examines what international humanitarian law actually requires, why war crimes are legally defined and not subjective, and how powerful nations have begun eroding the very principles designed to protect civilians. As civilian casualties rise and accountability fades, the world is left with an unsettling question: if these are the rules of war, who is still following them?
December opens with World AIDS Day — a global moment of remembrance and resolve — but it also reveals a deeper reality unfolding across the United States: a federal government growing increasingly silent in the face of suffering. From HIV prevention and civil rights protections to hunger, housing, and public health, compassion is receding from national leadership at a time when communities need it most. This month’s This Month in Compassion examines where empathy is thriving at the grassroots level, where it is disappearing at the federal level, and why ethical governance demands that compassion remain at the heart of every policy decision.
The Epstein disclosures are not a celebrity scandal — they are a structural indictment. The real story isn’t the names released, but the institutions that protected them.
The State Department’s new directive classifying abortion access and DEI programs as potential human-rights violations marks a major shift in U.S. foreign-policy language. By reframing reproductive autonomy and equity initiatives as infringements on “God-given rights,” the policy reverses long-standing human-rights interpretations and raises constitutional concerns. This editorial examines the implications of the directive, its conflict with the Ninth Amendment, and its potential impact on global human-rights reporting.
Transgender Day of Remembrance honors the lives lost to anti-trans violence and exposes the urgent need for nationwide protections. This piece reflects on the crisis facing transgender communities and highlights ERA2 as a path toward full constitutional equality.
A look at the Fourth Amendment’s promise of privacy—from colonial resistance to today’s digital age. This lesson in liberty examines how modern surveillance and government overreach continue to test the limits of personal freedom.
In a year when soldiers patrol American streets, when police forces resemble armies, and when government agents hide their faces from the public they serve, this Amendment is no relic. It is a reminder.
Is the First Amendment a guaranteed safeguard for dissenting voices, or a promise that can be bent by political pressure and corporate risk calculations?
The answer may determine not only the future of satire, but also the health of American democracy itself.
Celebrate Bisexuality Day, observed every September 23, honors bisexual visibility and equality. Explore its history, connection to ERA/ERA2, and why visibility matters today.
Sabrina Carpenter’s electrifying VMAs performance was more than pop spectacle—it was a statement. As dancers filled the stage holding signs … More
September is a month filled with awareness, remembrance, and calls to action. Across health, cultural heritage, and social justice, September … More
When the Supreme Court handed down Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, marriage equality supporters celebrated in the streets. For many, … More
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