For the past year, I have lived in the Philippines on the Southern coast of Luzon Island. This article is to reflect on this travel as a lawyer, disabled person, and American citizen, and what I will do when I get home.
Andrew Straw articles
Andrew Straw is a person with disabilities who practiced disability law and engages in disability reform advocacy. Straw was a Virginia lawyer and has served as corporate counsel for billionaire Alan M. Voorhees, who designed the Interstate Highway System and the Metro in Washington DC. Straw then worked for the Chief Justice of Indiana and was the assistant dean in charge of the International Programs at Indiana University-Maurer School of Law.
He grew up in Indiana, where his brother, a retired USAF captain and twice a critical care trauma nurse veteran of Afghanistan, ran as a Democratic candidate for sheriff of Hamilton County in 2018. Jason Straw is head of Indiana NORML and seeks reforms of the state’s marijuana laws like most other states have. Jason is known as “Captain Cannabis.”
Andrew Straw was born at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, where his father was training as a U.S. Marine for his Vietnam duty. Straw was thus poisoned on the first days of his life but was denied compensation and health care. Straw v. Wilkie, 843 F. App’x 263 (Fed. Cir. 1/15/2021); Straw v. United States, 4 F.4th 1358 (Fed. Cir. 2021). Straw started a group for people born or poisoned there called Children of Camp LeJeune. Congress voted to compensate people like Straw and his dead mother from the poisoning (S. 3373, Title VIII, Sec. 804). This new law has passed the U.S. House by 342-88 and the U.S. Senate by 86-11. It will likely be signed by President Biden in early August now that it has passed both houses.
Straw has visited 16 countries and has lived in the United States, Italy, New Zealand, Turkey, and the Philippines. Straw provided services to the Italian Foreign Ministry as a contractor and passed the written U.S. Foreign Service Officer Test in 1998. For more information, Straw’s CV can be found here. Straw has lived in the Philippines for over 4 years, from June 2018 – August 2022, studying disability access in that country, but may one day return to the United States when the human rights violations stop.
He is an asylum seeker due to the discrimination and human rights violations of state and federal courts in the USA. Andrew Straw lives just 1374 km from where his father was stationed in Vietnam. See also. Straw is engaging in pro se law reform from a distance.
New Zealand: Clean and Green or Corrupt and Mean?
Fighting a court is like trying to grab a snake covered in oil. They have more power than you do, often are poisonous, and are unaccountable when they libel you and strip you of your rights. It seems they bite you with dishonesty.
Time for a National Divorce Bureau in the United States
In the United States, the regulation of divorce and marriage have been left to the States, but the federal government has an interest in uniformity under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution.
The Disability Party Proposes a Constitutional Amendment
Disability Party believes the Constitution needs to be amended to reform some major problems with the federal courts and federal judges. These problems are being used to block disability rights.
The Disability Party and Abortion
The Disability Party has a position on abortion that some people find problematic. It is important for everyone to understand why this political party would limit the reach of Roe v. Wade the landmark case on abortion.
On the 6th Anniversary of the Disability Party, Some Background
Disabled Americans are encouraged to vote, but that’s all. No barriers have been removed to ensure that disabled voters have disabled candidates to vote for. Some states pretend that no disabled persons have disability rights as a candidate.
Why I Submitted Just One Signature For Ballot Access in Indiana
I was a founder of Indiana College Democrats, served as a Democratic precinct chair in Bloomington, and was a Democratic state delegate. But I will never be a Democrat in Indiana again.
On Shutdowns, Walls and Immigration
Turn back to 1989. The world was celebrating walls tumbling down and President Bush Sr. used the metaphor of walls crumbling down in his speech before signing the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Peculiar Patterns In U.S. Disability Legislation Politics
We are moving into another period with a Democratic House and a Republican president, and this tells me there will be opportunities for fantastic advances in disability rights. We need an omnibus disability rights bill.
Reform: Turn U.S. Circuit Judges Into Supreme Court Justices
The advantage of having U.S. Supreme Court panels all across the nation is that we would restore access to the highest court instead of having little fiefdom courts that try to avoid imposing Supreme Court precedents.