The primary balloting on March 15—in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois and Missouri—could prove pivotal in deciding the course of the rest of the nominating season. Should Donald Trump win Ohio and Florida, both of which are awarding delegates on a winner-takes-all basis, his path to the nomination will become exponentially more difficult for the GOP establishment to stop.  Should he fail to capture one or both of those states, the prospect of a more drawn-out contest looms. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton could open up a commanding lead with big wins in Florida and Ohio. But polls show Bernie Sanders closing the gap in the Midwest. Victories there could help bolster his determination to stay in the race.

Concern over the tone, tenor and violence at Donald Trump rallies continued to dominate discussion of the race, prompting House Speaker Paul Ryan to condemn the climate and urge candidates to “take responsibility” for what goes on at their campaign events; the president, too, weighed in. But the tactics being employed by some of Trump’s harshest critics—seeking to shut down rallies, and targeting his website for cyberattack—raised anti-free-speech concerns among civil-society groups.  Some analysts pondered the rising conservative attacks on the GOP front-runner and their long-term impact on Republican relations with the white working class.

Peace talks aimed at ending Syria’s civil war resumed in Geneva, as Vladimir Putin announced a surprise withdrawal of the core elements of Russia’s military forces.

A number of grantees joined an effort mounted by some 50 immigration reform groups, opposing House Speaker Paul Ryan’s bill to allow the chamber to submit an amicus brief in US v Texas, the GOP-led challenge to President Obama’s immigration executive actions.  

As reports suggested Obama could name his nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia any day now, the battle over the GOP’s refusal to consider holding hearings heated up. The Republican National Committee announced a task force to attack the nominee and coordinate media strategy, while Sen Harry Reid redoubled efforts to shame the GOP into changing course and advocates intensified home-state pressure on key senators involved in competitive re-election campaigns.

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general issued a report pointing out flaws in the US immigration application process that could pose a security risk. The director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Service, which administers the online process in question, disputed the findings, saying the report did not take into account significant upgrades.

Latinos in Wisconsin protested several anti-immigrant initiatives pending in the state legislature—including one permitting police to question the immigrant status of persons stopped for driving without a license, and another to prohibit local governments from issuing photo ID’s.

Among other grantee activities:

--America’s Voice helped frame coverage of the widening gap between the two parties on immigration policy.

--MoveOn.org launched a petition drive aimed at preventing the deportation of Kimberly Pineda Chavez, who fled gang violence in Honduras and settled with family in Georgia before being arrested by ICE on her way to high school.

--MALDEF is suing the University System of Georgia’s university officials for refusing to allow DACA recipients to pay in-state tuition, claiming that the system’s policy violates the supremacy clause and 14th Amendment equal protections under the Constitution.

--The American Constitution Society held a form on the Supreme Court vacancy and constitutional duty.

--Heartland Alliance-NIJC’s letter to the editor of the NYT was printed in response to government testimony that 3- and 4-year-olds can be taught immigration law and represent themselves in court. 

--Human Rights First wrote an op-ed on the need for unaccompanied children and other vulnerable individuals to have access to counsel in the immigration court system. 

--Grassroots Leadership published letters from 18 of the women who engaged in a hunger strike in Hutto Detention Facility to protest the conditions of the Texas facility, which has also been sued by the ACLU for the conditions under which the facility has held immigrant children and their parents.

--Black Alliance for Just Immigration was among the groups that supported the Black, Latino, & Muslim protests of the rally in Chicago last weekend. 

--Voces de la Frontera and other organizations are working to have the homicides of a Puerto Rican man and a Hmong couple, by a neighbor that confronted one of them for not speaking English, treated as a hate crime.