Despite some progress, there are structural problems preventing disabled people from participating in the electoral process as a candidate.
Andrew Straw articles
Andrew Straw, a Democracy Chronicles columnist since 2018, is a person with disabilities who practiced disability law and engages in disability law 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. Straw remains a member of the bar in good standing since 1999 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
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 was head of Indiana NORML and still 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 War duty. Straw was thus poisoned on the first days of his life but was denied compensation and health care. MDL-2218; 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 in 2015. Congress voted to compensate people like Straw and his dead mother from the poisoning (S. 3373, Title VIII, Sec. 804). This new law passed the U.S. House by 342-88 and the U.S. Senate by 86-11. "Camp LeJeune Justice Act of 2022" was signed by President Biden on August 10, 2022.
Straw is a 9/11 victim, having been exposed to the toxic dust South of Canal Street in New York City in October 2001, with respiratory and throat illness.
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. A National Merit Scholar, Andrew Straw’s CV can be found here. Straw has lived in the Philippines for over 5 years, starting June 2018, studying disability access in that country, but may one day return to the United States when the human rights violations against him 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 civil rights and constitutional law reform from a distance.
Straw claims the certiorari system limiting access to the U.S. Supreme Court is unconstitutional under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, the First Amendment, and the Fifth Amendment. If his lawsuit is successful, this will open the gates to 7,000+ appeals to the Supreme Court each year that are arbitrarily denied now without a merits decision in each. Such a reform would be the biggest pro-access change in federal court policy since the American Founding. Straw v. United States, 23-16039 (9th Cir.). He is pursuing these massive changes without any help, pro se and in forma pauperis, after being denied certiorari himself 13x from 2014 to 2022.
Notably, Straw's law license property rights have been denied at all levels, from state trial court to U.S. Supreme Court.
From My Philippines Experience To My Run For US Congress
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.
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.