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.
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.
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.
Judicial Weapons in the War Against Disability Civil Rights Lawyers
Maybe one day I will be able to escape this and get back to my disability civil rights leadership. Maybe one day, there will even be an apology from the 7th Circuit. Not holding my breath except for the manure.
Camp LeJeune Poisoning Reform Must be Prioritized
It is agonizingly slow trying to get justice for those born and poisoned at Camp LeJeune. I asked to overturn the denial of my Camp LeJeune Family Member Program application. I am still waiting.
Consequences of the Camp LeJeune Poisoning to Me and My Family
The Marine Corps and the judges who have been violating my disability and constitutional rights. They must be punished. Otherwise, more tragedies will happen as U.S. Marines are ordered to cut corners.
Virginia Can Fix Signature Gathering For Disabled Candidates
I have a suggestion that would improve the ability of disabled candidates and disabled voters to connect with each other and enable petitions for ballot access to be signed.
Court Decision Could Open Access to the Ballot for Disabled Candidates
It makes no sense at all for states to be registering people to vote online, but then not using that same system to make it easy for voters to sign ballot access petitions.