Keeping up with the news can be hard — but we’re here to make it a little easier. The NCJW team has pulled together a list of headlines we’re reading and paired them with some actions you can take to help. Here’s what’s happening the week of March 9th, 2026.

A Supreme Court case could weaken the voting power of Black Americans.

Even as we mark the 61st anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court is considering a challenge to the law that could weaken the voting power of Black Americans. 

The case, Louisiana v. Callais, revolves around a congressional district map drawn in 2024. The 2024 map adds a second majority Black district. The district was added after a federal court ruled that having only one majority Black district in Louisiana, where one-third of the voters are Black, violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. 

If the Court strikes down the portion of the VRA being challenged, it could fundamentally silence millions of Black voters across the South. 

This case has a particular resonance when you look at it in the broader context of the current attack on voting rights. The Voting Rights Act was one of the most consequential pieces of legislation to come out of the civil rights era, and is the very thing that outlawed major voter discrimination tactics like literacy tests and, along with the 24th Amendment, poll taxes. But now, voting rights advocates are rightly calling out the SAVE Act for trying to put in place the same types of barriers to voting that the VRA outlawed. 

Here’s what you can do

While we wait for the Court’s final decision, it’s clear that we need to do all that we can to protect our right to vote. That’s why we’re calling on the Senate to reject the SAVE Act. Add your voice today. 

46 million American workers now have access to some form of paid leave

14 states have passed paid leave laws since 2002, raising the number of people who have access to some form of paid leave up to 46 million, according to a new article from the 19th News. That’s great news — but it’s still only ⅓ of American workers, and varies state to state. 

Paid family and medical leave — often called paid leave — are policies that ensure if you need time off work for your health, to take care of a sick family member, to have a baby, or another health or family related situation, you still get your paycheck. While the Family Medical Leave Act provides unpaid leave, there is no federal law that provides paid leave. 

Working families lose an estimated $22.5 billion in wages each year because of a lack of access to paid leave. And this is a gendered problem: women are five to eight times more likely than men to have caregiving needs — like taking care of a sick child or parent — impact their jobs. 

The bottom line? Even with this good news, we still need a federal paid leave program, not a piecemeal program that changes state by state. 

Here’s what you can do

Tell Congress: guarantee paid leave for everyone. Pass the FAMILY Act.

Anti-abortion laws want you to snitch on your neighbors

Laws inspired by Texas’s anti-abortion “bounty hunter” laws are spreading across the country. According to an article from ReWire News, they’re not just being used to target people seeking access to abortion care — they’re coming for trans people too. 

These laws, which originated with Texas’s SB 8 in 2021, provide financial incentives to encourage people to snitch on their neighbors. After the Supreme Court declined to make a decision on the legality of SB 8, states like Kansas, Idaho, and Tennessee have passed their own versions of these snitch laws. They’ve expanded these laws to new targets — trans people just trying to use the bathroom. 

These kinds of bills aren’t unprecedented. They hark back to pre-Civil War conflicts over the Fugitive Slave Act, another time when people were encouraged to snitch on their neighbors. 

Here’s what you can do

Your access to abortion care shouldn’t depend on your zip code. We need to pass the EACH Act to make sure everyone has equal access to abortion care.

Trump administration continues to attack federal judges

The Trump administration continues to attack federal judges for just doing their jobs. This time, the attack comes from the Department of Justice. After four separate district court rulings struck down President Trump’s executive orders attempting to bar prominent law firms from being able to do business with the government, the DOJ filed a brief claiming the courts were “encroaching on the constitutional power of the president,” reports the New York Times. 

This is only the latest in a pattern of attacks Trump and his administration have launched against federal judges and our courts in general. The end goal? To make judges who are already on the federal bench too scared to oppose him — and make it clear what his administration expects from their judicial nominees. 

Here’s what you can do

We need judges who will protect our constitution. Tell the Senate: confirm fair-minded judges to the federal bench.

Pres. Trump threatens to hold all bills in limbo until Congress passes an anti-trans version of the anti-voter SAVE Act.

The SAVE Act is bad enough. Now, President Trump wants to make it even worse — and he’s willing to hold all legislation ransom in order to do it. According to an article from The Guardian, the president has threatened not to sign any new bills until Congress approves a version of the SAVE Act that includes attacks on our access to vote, but also completely unrelated bans on transgender people participating in women’s sports and gender-affirming surgeries for minors. 

There is no good version of the SAVE Act, but this new version the Trump administration is calling for is unnecessarily cruel. The SAVE Act would already have a disproportionate impact on women and trans people because of the strict limitations on what documents people would be able to use to prove their citizenship before they could register to vote. 

Here’s what you can do

The Senate is considering the SAVE Act now. Tell your senators: vote NO on the SAVE Act!

The Trump administration is denying pregnant kids the care they need

The Trump administration is sending all pregnant unaccompanied minors captured by ICE to a group shelter in southern Texas that lacks the specialized care the girls need, according to a report from NPR.  

Since July of 2025, over a dozen pregnant minors have been sent to a facility on the Texas border. Some of these girls are as young as 13. Over half became pregnant as a result of sexual violence. And all of them had pregnancies that would be considered high risk. 

Longstanding federal practice would dictate that pregnant, unaccompanied migrant children would be placed in facilities or foster homes around the country that are equipped to handle high-risk pregnancies. This move marks a decisive shift away from that practice. 

Why the change? Health care professionals, migrant advocates, and civil rights attorneys are worried the change has been made for ideological reasons: by moving the girls to a state where abortion is virtually banned, the government is denying these girls the ability to access abortion care if they need it. 

Here’s what you can do

It’s time to hold ICE accountable. Tell Congress: no more funding for ICE.