Protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to mark the Court's hearing of challenges to the Voting Rights Act. Raw Story spoke to Linda Sarsour, director of the Arab American Center of New York, who was on the scene Wednesday morning.

Two new bills introduced Monday by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) aim to help medical marijuana patients defend themselves in court and open up new avenues of scientific research into the drug by forcing the federal government to recognize marijuana's potential for medical value.

The budget-related release of undocumented immigrants from federal detention centers in at least three states has underscored the problem with the government's enforcement of immigration policy, an activist group told The Raw Story.

Immigrants rights advocates are criticizing North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory's (R) plan to mark driver's licenses for two-year visa recipients with the phrase "NO LEGAL STATUS."

It may not be in the news at all anymore, but the revolutionary spirit of "Occupy Wall Street" is "still alive" in the U.S., according to political hip-hop artist Immortal Technique, who spoke to Raw Story ahead of a show in Austin, Texas.

The executive director of conservative LGBT group GOProud told The Raw Story on Saturday that MSNBC host Chris Hayes had contacted the group before calling for their inclusion in a leading conservative conference, but that the situation had not changed.

Medical marijuana activists gathered at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Saturday to talk about resistance to federal law. It's clear that these activists view themselves as performing civil disobedience, risking jail time, legal fees and stigma. One activist and medical marijuana dispensary worker even compared the movement to the rebels in "Star Wars," saying that finding legal weaknesses in the federal case is like "finding the weakness in the Death Star."

On Thursday Obama's consumer protection bureau announced it would begin "gathering information" on how to reorganize private student loan repayment.

A liberal group hopes to convince voters in California to rebuke the Supreme Court's controversial Citizens United ruling, which paved the way for the outside campaign spending groups known as Super PACs. There is only one problem, the group is itself a Super PAC.

Washington state Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D) has a novel idea: now that marijuana is legal in the state, he wants people convicted of minor, state-level marijuana offenses to get a clean slate.

Young people convicted of drug charges are at higher risk of never attending college at all, thanks in part to a law blocking federal financial aid following a drug conviction, according to research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research this month.

A Minnesota-based Muslim group called for authorities to intervene in a Minneapolis high school with mediation and tolerance training, days following cafeteria spat between two girls that erupted into a 300-person brawl largely divided along racial lines.