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News Clips Archive

• January 25, 2012  |  Columbia Free-Times Dead Wrong? Election Official Disputes Claim That Deceased Voted in S.C. On January 11th, South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles Director Kevin Shwedo claimed 957 dead people voted in the recent election, raising the specter of massive voter fraud. However, new findings have led to widespread skepticism of the DMV report.
• January 25, 2012  |  South Carolina Election Commission SEC Executive Director Testifies on “Dead Voters” Claim Testimony by South Carolina Election Commission Executive Direct Marci Andino refutes the state’s Attorney General’s claim that 953 dead people cast ballots.
• January 23, 2012  |  Time Magazine The New Battle Over Voting Rights Adam Cohen discusses the recent debate over government issued photo identification laws and the mounting aggressive attack on the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act.
• January 21, 2012  |  USA Today Proposed State Voter ID Laws Could Have Big Impact on College Students Opponents of restrictive government-issued photo ID laws believe that the laws have a disproportionate impact on minorities, young adults, people with disabilities, and the elderly. Mimi Murray Digby Marziani, Counsel for the Democracy Program with the Brennan Center for Social Justice in Washington D.C., states that five million voters could have their right to vote taken away from them if these laws are passed.
• January 18, 2012 Lawyers' Committee Submits Support Letter for HUD Proposed Regulation Concerning Disparate Impact Claims Under Fair Housing Act On January 17, 2012 the Lawyers’ Committee, six of its affiliates and eighteen other civil rights organizations submitted a comment letter in full support of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s proposed regulation establishing that violations of the Fair Housing Act may be proved through a disparate impact analysis.
• January 13, 2012  |  Sun Herald Steps Asks HUD to Halt Expansion Lawyers' Committee is part of a coalition of community groups calling for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to demand repayment of federal funds already spent on state port expansion.
• January 11, 2012  |  TPM Lawyer Defending South Carolina’s Voter ID Law Thinks DOJ Is Biased Against White People South Carolina officials plan to challenge the Justice Department’s block of a voter ID law that statistics show would negatively affect non-white voters.
• January 11, 2012  |  Media Matters O'Keefe Video Doesn't Show "Dead People Vote In NH" James O’Keefe’s recent video advocating restrictive voter ID laws shows no evidence that voter fraud is actually an issue, only that O’Keefe and his crew have engaged in manufacturing voter fraud.
• January 11, 2012  |  Media Matters For America The Flaws In The O’Keefe ‘Voter Fraud’ Scheme Rather than demonstrating that voter fraud is an easily performed act, James O’Keefe’s “voter fraud” stunt demonstrates how difficult it would actually be to pull off an “election-changing” plot.
• January 9, 2012  |  Baltimore Sun HBCU Lawsuit: A Troubled Legacy "Our view: Maryland's historically black colleges and universities were underfunded during the era of segregation; now the state must find a way to empower them to compete effectively with their traditionally white peers."
• January 9, 2012 Reporting on the Maryland Historically Black Colleges and Universities Case and Trial The Lawyers' Committee and pro bono partners are currently in court fighting to dismantle remaining vestiges of de jure segregation in the Maryland higher education system and seeking equality for Maryland's HBCUs. Links to all recent articles written about The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education v. Maryland Higher Education Commission are available here.
• January 6, 2012 Pulling Back the Curtain on Mississippi’s Voter ID Initiative Today, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law releases an analysis of the vote on Initiative 27, Mississippi’s voter identification amendment, which found that despite its passage by the majority of voters in the November 8, 2011 election, more than 75% of the state’s minority population voted to reject the requirement to show photo ID when voting.
• January 4, 2012  |  WOWT.com Proposed Voter ID Bill Meets Opposition A Nebraska senator recently proposed a new voter ID law and opponents of the legislation are already up in arms.
• January 3, 2012  |  TheBaynet.com Deceptive Voter Practices Cannot Be Tolerated U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Charles Schumer are re-introducing the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2011 to protect the vote of minority communities.
• January 3, 2012 Maryland Higher Education Desegregation Trial Begins As we prepare to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, we should reflect upon some of the subtle inequalities that still exist in our country today. Very close to our nation’s capital, a federal court will hear a lawsuit that questions whether the State of Maryland has satisfied its legal obligation to dismantle vestiges of its former segregated higher education system from the state’s historically black public universities. Nearly 58 years after the decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, this is the issue at the heart of a five- year-old case (The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education v. Maryland Higher Education Commission) in Maryland’s U.S. District Court – the first of its kind in the state and the first of its kind in the nation to go to trial in some 16 years.
• January 3, 2012  |  Wall Street Journal Maryland School Segregation Case Goes to Trial "More than a half-century after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public education, a court will decide if Maryland is doing enough to support the state's historically black public colleges and universities. A lawsuit brought by a group largely made up of students and alumni from these schools, and headed to trial Tuesday in a Baltimore federal court, accuses the state of repeatedly failing to fulfill promises to desegregate the schools."
• December 30, 2011  |  The Sacramento Bee Op-Ed: Voter ID laws continue an assault on democracy In 2011, five states passed laws requiring voters to present government-issued photo identification before being allowed to cast their vote. Not only are these laws unnecessary because voters already have to prove their residency and citizenship when registering, they make voting more difficult for groups that are less likely to have or need government-issued photo ID in their daily lives.
• December 28, 2011  |  Baltimore Sun Maryland Fails to Keep Its Promise to HBCUs: Lawsuit Demands Historically Black Institutions be Brought on Par with Historically White Ones Maryland is attempting to renege on its obligation to provide sufficient funding to make its historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) comparable and competitive with other public universities in Maryland in terms of mission, academic program offerings, library services, information technology infrastructure, and other facets of their operations. For five years, the state has vigorously opposed a lawsuit by HBCU students and alumni that seeks to dismantle remnants of the formerly segregated higher education system. The case, the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education v. Maryland's Higher Education Commission, is the first of its kind in the state and the first of its kind in the nation to go to trial in some 16 years.
• December 28, 2011  |  The Grio Voter ID battle will spread from South Carolina to several other key states Restrictive government-issued voter ID laws in several states could dampen minority, elderly, student, and low-income citizen participation in future elections, prompting heightened scrutiny from the Department of Justice.
• December 27, 2011  |  The New Yorker Op-Ed: Holder's Legacy Restrictive new government-issued voter ID laws in South Carolina and other states highlight the importance of the Voting Rights Act, first passed in 1965 and renewed several times since by large bipartisan majorities.
• December 23, 2011  |  Washington Post Justice Dept. rejects South Carolina voter ID law, calling it discriminatory The Department of Justice rejected South Carolina's new government-issued voter ID law, noting that the law will have a discriminatory impact on registered minority voters, who are less likely to have the current government-issued photo ID required to vote under the law.
• December 23, 2011 Lawyers’ Committee Praises the Department of Justice’s Settlement of Fair Lending Case against Countrywide Financial Corporation The Lawyers’ Committee applauds the Department of Justice’s filing on December 21, 2011 of the largest residential fair lending settlement in history to resolve allegations by the Department that Countrywide Financial Corporation and its subsidiaries engaged in a widespread pattern or practice of discrimination against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers in their mortgage lending from 2004 through 2008. Countrywide was acquired by the Bank of America after this period.
• December 22, 2011  |  AFRO The Rocky Road Following Brown vs Board of Education: HBCU 'Equality' Lawsuit While the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education Inc. sued the Maryland Higher Education Commission in 2006, the lawsuit – which goes to trial Jan. 3 in a Baltimore federal court – is really rooted in more than 50 years of education litigation, beginning with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
• December 21, 2011 Lawyers' Committee and Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center Release "People's Analysis of Impediments (AI) to Fair Housing for New Orleans" The "People's AI" is the result of a collaboration among the Lawyers' Committee, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, and more than a dozen service providers, affordable housing developers, and advocates. The report provides recommendations about how the City of New Orleans can draft an effective Analysis of Impediments and critiques its current draft AI.
• December 16, 2011  |  KnoxNews.com Gov. Bill Haslam voices concerns about requiring photo ID for voting Tennessee governor Bill Haslam worries that the new state law that requires voters to have government-issued photo ID will make it "unnecessarily hard" for some to cast their vote in next year's elections.
• December 15, 2011  |  AFRO HBCU ‘Equality’ Lawsuit: The Battle to Correct the Inequities Against Maryland’s Black Colleges The road has been an arduous one, but a lawsuit filed more than five years ago seeking $2.1 billion to remedy what it contends are disparities between Maryland’s historically Black colleges and universities and its traditionally White institutions is nearing trial in Baltimore. Its outcome could affect higher education for decades to come.
• December 15, 2011  |  American Urban Radio Networks (Sheridan Broadcasting Network) Lawyers' Committee's Eric Marshall on Attorney General Eric Holder's Speech on Voting Rights Eric Marshall of the Lawyers' Committee applauded Attorney General Eric Holder's mention of modernizing the outdated voter registration system and support of federal legislation to eliminate deceptive practices.
• December 14, 2011  |  AFRO Maryland's Ugly Segregated Past Must Be Shown Among the rulings U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake made during Tuesday’s pre-trial hearing were that historical reports from as far back as 1937 could be admitted into evidence and that the leaders of two of Maryland’s historically Black colleges could testify at the hearing that begins next month.
• December 13, 2011  |  NPR Does School Choice Really Help Students? Natalie Hopkinson offers her critical assessment of charter schools - and why she believes they fail to live up to the hype.
• December 13, 2011  |  New York Times Holder Signals Tough Review of New State Laws on Voting Attorney General Holder said the Department of Justice would be scrutinizing new state voter laws more closely to ensure they do not have a discriminatory impact. He also called for modernizing the voter registration system with automatic voter registration and introducing legislation to curb the practice of using deceptive robocalls and flyers to intimidate or trick voters into staying home on election day.
• December 12, 2011  |  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Amended state voter ID bill moves forward Pennsylvania's state Senate narrowly passed a restrictive government-issued voter ID bill through committee. Like similar bills passed in states across the country, this bill, if passed, will make it more difficult for groups who are less likely to have the necessary qualifying identification -- senior citizens, people with disabilities, students, minorities, and low-income citizens -- to vote in the 2012 presidential election and beyond.
• December 12, 2011  |  Charleston Regional Business Journal Civil rights groups attempt to block S.C. voter ID law from taking effect More than 200,000 registered voters in South Carolina who have already proven their residency and eligibility to vote, could have their right to vote taken away if a new state law goes into effect. The new law requires registered voters to present a current, valid government-issued photo ID in order to vote, but many voters, especially the elderly, people with disabilities, students, low-income voters, and minorities don't have the required ID.
• December 11, 2011  |  Philadelphia Inquirer Op-Ed: The real reason for pushing the voter-ID plan in Pa. In Pennsylvania, over 20 million votes have been cast since 2004 - yet only 4 individuals were convicted of voter fraud since then. Zero of those convicted were impersonating another person; all four were for voters who registered when they were ineligible to do so. Restrictive government-issued voter ID laws aren't necessary to prevent voter impersonation fraud, which is already a felony.
• December 11, 2011  |  Politic365 Racial Integration and Educational Quality Since the founding of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in 1963, we have supported integration and diversity in public schools, following the mandate of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”
• December 9, 2011  |  Afro American Newspaper Massive Manhattan Voting Rights Demonstration Set for Dec. 10 Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine joins NAACP President Ben Jealous and other civil rights leaders in for December 10th rally in New York City to Address Assault on Voting.
• December 7, 2011  |  The City Project Advocates Submit Comments on FTA's Environmental Justice and Title VI Circulars The Lawyers' Committee and diverse national, statewide, and local organizations and scholars that work on transportation justice have submitted public comments to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) on the proposed new Circulars on Title VI and Environmental Justice.
• December 6, 2011  |  NY Post Feds target HAMP scammers bilking owners Once again, mortgage servicers are hitting ordinary New York homeowners where it hurts. The latest evidence is widespread scams tied to the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, which was supposed to help up to 4 million troubled borrowers avoid foreclosure...
• December 6, 2011  |  Baltimore Sun Schurick guilty of election fraud in robocall case Top political aide to former Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich was found guilty of election fraud and using deceptive tactics to discourage voters from going to the polls.
• December 5, 2011  |  Lawyers.com Don’t Let Rick Perry – or Anyone Else – Keep You from Voting Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry's gaffe at St. Anselm College, where he asked students who would be 21 by November 12, 2011 to vote for him (the legal voting age is 18 and the general Election Day in 2012 is November 6th, not November 12th), provide an example of accidental misinformation that could confuse voters or potentially keep people from casting their ballots. However, significant changes to voter registration and proof of eligibility laws have the power to confuse and disenfranchise far more voters.
• December 5, 2011  |  NPR Maryland Case May Discourage Political Dirty Tricks A Maryland case highlights the need for national legislation to combat deceptive practices and political dirty tricks. Some of the most common examples include anonymous flyers and robocalls telling people to vote on the wrong day and flyers advertising false precinct changes intended to make voters go to the wrong polling place.
• December 4, 2011  |  Wausau Daily Herald Voter ID becomes law of unintended consequences In her 84 years of life, Ruthelle Frank never needed a birth certificate -- until now. Wisconsin's restrictive new government-issued voter ID law goes into effect in 2012, and without a birth certificate, Ruthelle won't be able to get a state identification card to be able to vote. Born in her home in 1927, Ruthelle never had a birth certificate -- and never needed one. She's voted in every election since 1948.
• December 2, 2011 DOJ and DOE Issue Guidance on Diversity Policies in Educational Institutions Today, the United States Department of Education (ED) and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) jointly issued guidance that explains how educational institutions can lawfully pursue voluntary policies to achieve diversity or avoid racial isolation within the framework of Titles IV and VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and current case law. The new guidance documents review three key Supreme Court rulings on the use of race by educational institutions, and provide examples of options that schools and postsecondary institutions may wish to consider in structuring programs that lawfully further diversity or reduce racial isolation. The guidance is presented in two documents, one for elementary and secondary schools and the other for postsecondary institutions.
• December 1, 2011  |  The Tennessean Nashville homeless man says he got voter ID runaround
• November 29, 2011  |  Roll Call Parties Contest Election-Monitoring Techniques Poll monitors for the King Street Patriots in Texas have been accused of intimidating voters under the guise of preventing election fraud. The group is also being sued for allegedly violating Texas campaign finance law.
• November 21, 2011  |  The Florida Independent New bill would nix prohibition against poll workers asking voters for ‘additional information’ A newly proposed bill in Florida will make it even harder for eligible citizens to cast their ballots. Under the proposed bill, even if a voter brings their government-issued photo ID, and the address on the card matches the address in the voting rolls, and all of the signatures match, a poll worker can still insist on more proof that a voter is eligible.
• November 18, 2011 Lawyers’ Committee Applauds HUD’s Release of Proposed Regulation Concerning Disparate Impact Claims under the Fair Housing Act On November 16, 2011, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a proposed regulation entitled “Implementation of the Fair Housing Act’s Disparate Impact Standard.” “The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law applauds today’s publication for providing a definitive interpretation that violations of the Fair Housing Act may be proved through a disparate impact analysis as well as by proof of intentional discrimination,” said Fair Housing and Fair Lending Project Director Joe Rich. “The disparate impact (or discriminatory effect) theory is firmly established by Fair Housing Act case law. Starting 38 years ago, every appellate court that has addressed this issue, without exception, has found that the Fair Housing Act provides for disparate impact claims. Adding HUD’s interpretation through this regulation to this long line of court precedent clarifies and strengthens the ability of both the private and public sectors to vigorously enforce the Act.”
• November 18, 2011  |  Albuquerque Journal Possible Vote Fraud Findings Dwindle NM Secretary of State Dianna Duran, who had been investigating voter fraud in her state, revised her claims of voter fraud downward. Previously, she had claimed that 37 out of 1.1 million registered voters (0.0034%) were possibly non-citizens.
• November 17, 2011  |  New York Times Disenfranchise No More The Department of Justice has been protecting the rights of voters for decades using a procedure called preclearance which prevents states from enacting major changes to its election law unless states can show that the new laws will not have a racially discriminatory impact.
• November 15, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Joins Amicus Brief Challenging SC's Anti-Immigration Law On November 11, 2011 the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law joined an amicus brief in support of Lowcountry Immigration Coalition, et al., v. Nikki Haley, et al., which seeks a Preliminary Injunction against South Carolina's anti-immigration law, SB 20. Enacted in June 2011, SB 20 is designed to usurp the Federal Government's authority to enforce immigration law and to make the lives of undocumented immigrants so difficult that they would be forced out of the state. Like the slew of anti-immigration bills that have recently passed in other states, SB 20 presents an attack on the constitutionally protected freedoms of all South Carolinians.
• November 15, 2011  |  The Tennessean Murfreesboro couple testify in D.C. about voter ID experience Lee and Phyllis Campbell, a retired couple from Tennessee who had difficulty obtaining a free ID card for voting testified before a panel of House Democrats on November 14. They explained how when they asked for the free ID, the driver's license testing center worker encouraged them to pay $8 for a new license, because a free ID involved "too much paperwork."
• November 15, 2011  |  Brave New Foundation Who is Denying YOUR Vote: New Video on Voter Suppression Laws from Brave New Foundation! Proponents of government-issued voter ID laws claim that the laws prevent fraud - but invalid voter registrations are rarer than one in a million. Government-issued voter ID laws do nothing to prevent voter impersonation fraud - but they do disenfranchise targeted populations, particularly the elderly, people with disabilities, students, low-income voters, and minorities.
• November 14, 2011  |  Voting Rights Project Barbara Arnwine Speaks at House Democrats' Forum on State Voting Laws The right to vote and choose our leaders is at the heart of what it means to be American and participate in our democracy. Right now, state legislatures are actively trying to make it harder for certain segments of our citizenry to vote and have their voices heard.
• November 14, 2011  |  Wall Street Journal WSJ: "Mortgage Scams in a Weak Housing Market" Lawyers' Committee Senior Counsel Yolanda McGill is quoted in WSJ's latest article highlighting foreclosure rescue scams: "Schemes that prey on struggling homeowners heading toward foreclosure are 'the cash cow right now,' says Yolanda McGill, senior counsel for the Fair Housing and Fair Lending Project of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Some fraudsters are peddling services such as preparing documents for a loan modification. Others claim to be an attorney or say they are working with an attorney. Often, these offers sound legitimate, echoing some of the same language used by government programs and lenders to gain a homeowner's trust."
• November 10, 2011 Director of Employment Discrimination Project Presents Testimony on Credit Checks to D.C. City Council On November 9, 2011, the Lawyers’ Committee presented testimony at a hearing of the Committee on Public Services and Consumer Affairs of the District of Columbia City Council in support of the objective of a proposed ordinance restricting access of employers to consumer credit history information.
• November 8, 2011  |  Huffington Post Election Day Robocall Instructs Voters To Go To Polls Tomorrow On November 8, Ohio voters received a suspicious phone call telling them the state election was a day later. On the morning of Election Day, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) office received the automated message, which stated that the election would take place “tomorrow.”
• November 8, 2011  |  Educational Opportunities Project Lawyers' Committee and Coalition Partners Withhold Support for ESEA Proposal A bipartisan coalition of 29 civil rights groups, business associations, statewide education officials, and education advocates are withholding support for the proposed ESEA bill due to the absence of accountability measures.
• November 8, 2011  |  Voting Rights Project Lawyers’ Committee Successfully Opposes Texas’ Preclearance Request in Section 5 Declaratory Judgment Action Regarding Statewide Redistricting Plans On November 8, 20011, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied summary judgment to the State of Texas in its lawsuit seeking preclearance, under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, of its redistricting plans for Congress, the state House of Representatives, and the state Senate.
• November 8, 2011  |  Associated Press Maine voters restore Election Day registration In a November 8 ballot referendum, Maine voters restored Election Day registration. 60% of voters called for the repeal of a law passed in June, which forced voters to register two days before an election. The measure had rolled back more than four-decades of successful same-day registration.
• November 7, 2011  |  Middle Tennessee State University Poll Report Voters Don't Know Details of Tennessee Voter ID Law A new poll conducted by the Middle Tennessee State University Survey Group shows that voters do not understand the details of Tennessee's new government-issued photo ID law. Overall, 71% of those surveyed said they were aware of the law, but only 51% of those age 39 or younger knew about it.
• November 4, 2011  |  Public Policy Program Lawyers' Committee Urges Continued Funding for Election Assistance Commission The Lawyers' Committee urges Congress to oppose any efforts to eliminate funding for the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Abolishing the EAC would fail to further voting transparency and reliability that was at the heart of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). Furthermore, with the 2012 Presidential Election season well underway, this Congress should focus its efforts on enhancing those institutions with primary voting rights enforcement responsibilities, not undermining their existence.
• November 1, 2011 Title Clearing Collaborative Has Reached Over 120 Clients And Counting! The New Orleans Title Clearing Collaborative provides pro bono legal assistance to homeowners in Orleans Parish that need help clearing title to their land. Once homeowners get clear title, they will be able to access federal and state aid money to repair and return to their homes that were damaged during Hurricane Katrina. Attorneys with the Collaborative are working with more than 120 clients, far outpacing initial expectations, and they have already cleared title to a number of properties. More than 1,000 people have attended one of the 20 community education and intake events held throughout New Orleans.
• October 30, 2011  |  The Commercial Appeal Voter ID Initiative Set for Mississippi Ballot On November 8, Mississippi voters will have the opportunity to decide whether the state should require government-issued photo identification at polling places.
• October 24, 2011 Lawyers’ Committee’s Tanya Clay House Speaks at Congressional Briefing on New H-2B Guestworker Rule On October 21, 2011, immigration, labor and civil rights experts gathered for a congressional briefing on the final wage rule issued by the Department of Labor which raised wages for seasonal migrant workers under the H-2B guestworker program to “prevailing wages” for those industries. The briefing highlighted the great benefit of the rule, which reinstates fair wages for all workers and protects jobs in communities across the nation. Speakers at the briefing also warned that any further delay in implementation of the rule would harm both U.S. and migrant workers. The wage increases were to go into effect on September 30, 2011, but were postponed until November 30 as a result of legal challenges. Most recently, an appropriations bill signed into law further delayed implementation by prohibiting the use of funds to implement the wage increases prior to January 1, 2012.
• October 23, 2011  |  Daytona Beach News-Journal New Florida election law stirs up controversy Civics teacher Jill Cicciarelli could face thousands of dollars in fines for helping her students to register to vote under Florida's excessively restrictive new law.
• October 20, 2011  |  Daily News Journal 91 year-old Tennessee woman unable to stand in line for ID Virginia Lasater, 91, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee could not get a photo ID card to vote, because she could not physically stand in line at the driver testing center. Lasater has been voting and has worked on campaigns for the past 40 years, but has never had photo identification.
• October 20, 2011  |  Reuters League of Women Voters files suit to block Wisconsin's new voter ID law The Wisconsin League of Women Voters filed a lawsuit on October 20 to block the state's government-issued photo identification law.
• October 20, 2011  |  Slate The ugly parallels between Jim Crow and modern vote-suppression laws. Although the most obvious forms of vote suppression have faded away, new and inisidious suppression efforts have sprung up, cloaked in the language of preventing voter fraud - much like vote suppression during the Jim Crow era.
• October 19, 2011 LAWYERS’ COMMITTEE AND CIVIL RIGHTS PARTNERS FILED AMICUS BRIEF IN SUPREME COURT CASE RAISING IMPORTANT ACCESS TO COURT ISSUE On October 18, 2011, the Lawyers’ Committee, along with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the National Fair Housing Alliance and the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs submitted an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court in First America Financial Corp. v. Edwards (No. 10-708). This brief was filed in support of the Edwards and argues that Congress has broad rights to give private citizens access to the courts. The case involves a homebuyer who sued a title insurance company under a federal statute that aims to curtail kickbacks and collusion between providers of real estate settlement services (such as title insurance) and settlement or real estate agents.
• October 19, 2011 Lawyers' Committee and Partners Say "Don't Let Congress Turn Back the Clock on Teacher Quality" Congress is debating this week whether to turn back the clock on advances for our most vulnerable students that were part of the legacy of No Child Left Behind. At stake as part of the debate is whether our legislators believe teachers should be required to complete a minimum level of training and demonstrate competence before they enter the classroom -- and especially whether poor and minority students, English language learners, and students with disabilities deserve equal access to such well-qualified teachers.
• October 19, 2011  |  ABC 27 Pennsylvanians Rally Against Voter ID Voters gathered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to protest House Bill 934, which requires voters to show a government-issued photo ID at the polls. The bill has passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and is pending before the Senate.
• October 19, 2011  |  NPR, Associated Press Stories of Disenfranchisement in South Carolina Delores Freelon and Willie Blair are just two of the 178,000 South Carolina voters who may lost their right to vote because of the state's new government-issued photo ID law.
• October 12, 2011  |  Wisconsin State Journal New student IDs for voting could cost UW-Madison $700,000 every two years Issuing new ID cards to students that comply with the new Wisconsin government-issued photo ID law would cost UW-Madison alone $700,000 every two years.
• October 11, 2011 Lawyers' Committee and Partners Call for TransUnion to Stop Promoting and Selling Employment Credit Reports The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law joined with 24 other advocacy organizations on Tuesday in sending a letter calling for TransUnion to halt the sale and promotion of employment credit checks. The groups' action was prompted by TransUnion's efforts to lead the credit check reporting industry in fighting state legislation that would restrict the ability of employers to check the credit of job applicants.
• October 5, 2011  |  Times Free Press 96-year-old Tennessee Woman Denied Voting ID Dorothy Cooper, 96, of Chattanooga was denied an identification card required to vote last month. Although Cooper provided a birth certificate, a rent receipt, and a voter registration card, officials at the Tennessee Department of Safety still refused to give her a photo ID card because her current surname did not match her maiden name listed on her birth certificate.
• October 4, 2011  |  TPM Muckraker Voter ID Under Fire At Progressive Conference; Obama Calls Restrictions A 'Big Mistake' In this article, Ryan J. Reilly discusses the progressive community's response to recently-passed voter ID restrictions.
• September 30, 2011  |  Law Out Loud with Jen CDP Partner Louisiana Appleseed Discusses Title Clearing Initiative on Law Out Loud Community Development Project partners Christy Kane and Jessie Haynes of Louisiana Appleseed were featured on "Law Out Loud with Jen" on WGSO 990 AM this week.
• September 30, 2011  |  American Lawyer Law and Order: A group of pro bono lawyers are pursuing fraud cases The October 2011 issue of American Lawyer includes a "Bartalk" spotlight on the great work of the Lawyers' Committee's Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network and the cases it has brought with pro bono partners Davis Polk in New York.
• September 29, 2011  |  Newsday Borrowers win $68G award against loan modifier Nine borrowers have won a $68,000 judgment against a now-defunct loan modification company that illegally charged upfront fees -- and did little to lower mortgage payments...
• September 29, 2011 Celebrating Hispanic Heritage in the U.S. National Hispanic Heritage Month, observed from September 15 to October 15, is an opportunity to officially celebrate the numerous outstanding contributions of the Latino community in the United States and to bring light to issues of importance to the advancement of racial justice and equality. Latinos have a longstanding legacy in the United States, with roots that stretch deep into the history of the land.
• September 29, 2011 Heirs' Property Retention Coalition (HPRC) Partner Mentioned in NYT Book Review One of our partners in the HPRC, the Center for Heirs' Property Preservation, is mentioned in a recent NY Times book review of "If Sons, Then Heirs", a fiction novel that highlights the troubles with heirs' property.
• September 29, 2011  |  ThinkProgress Maine Secretary of State Targets Student Voters Maine Secretary of State Charlie Summers gave 206 university students a grim ultimatum: register a car in the state, give up their right to vote. The letter gave the students 30 days to register their vehicle with the Maine DMV, or return an enclosed form canceling their voter registration. College students had the right to vote in their school’s state affirmed by the Supreme Court in 1979.
• September 28, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Urges DOJ to Reject North Carolina’s Citizenship Verification and Purge Procedure for Voter Registration On September 28, 2011, the Lawyers’ Committee, along with the ACLU Voting Rights Project, wrote to the Justice Department urging the Department to not grant Section 5 preclearance to North Carolina’s new citizenship verification and purge procedure for voter registration. The new procedure wrongly presumes that new registrants who were not citizens at the time they obtained a driver’s license also were still not citizens when they registered to vote months, if not years, later.
• September 28, 2011  |  The Root DC, Washington Post The Assault On The Fundamental Right to Vote The U.S. Constitution is under assault. So much so that maybe we ought to inscribe this Latin phrase, Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate, or Abandon all hope, ye who enter here, on it alongside the other weighty ideas. This is particularly true for African Americans on the lower economic rungs.
• September 23, 2011  |  Bloomberg Businessweek Oprah-Backed Charter School Denying Disabled Collides With Law New Orleans students with disabilities continue to face discrimination in their public schools, and several new articles expose the shameful treatment experienced by these students. On behalf of its clients in its New Orleans special education litigation, P.B. v. Pastorek, the Lawyers’ Committee is encouraged to see the national media shed light on the illegal discriminatory actions that New Orleans schools commit against our most vulnerable students.
• September 21, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Successfully Defends Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act This morning, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the constitutionality of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act against a challenge by Shelby County, Alabama, a largely-white suburb of Birmingham. The ruling in the case, Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, No. 1:10-cv-00651 (D.D.C.), held that Congress acted appropriately when it reauthorized the preclearance requirement of Section 5 in 2006.
• September 16, 2011 Lawyers’ Committee and Partners File Appellate Brief Supporting Expansive Reading of the NVRA The Lawyers’ Committee and its coalition partners filed a brief in the Tenth Circuit defending a district court victory in our case challenging the failure of the State of New Mexico to distribute voter registration applications to public assistance clients, as required by the National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”).
• September 9, 2011 'Countering the Assault on Voting Rights' Panel Videos Videos from the September 8th Panel Discussion, "Countering the Assault on Voting Rights"
• September 7, 2011  |  The Times-Picayune Louisiana's Recovery School District Chief Plans Central Enrollment System, Technical Training, More The Recovery School District's "12 Commitments" are aimed at addressing systemic issues in both general education and special education, some of which are at the root of Lawyers' Committee's case against the Louisiana Department of Education, P.B. v. Pastorek.
• September 7, 2011  |  The Capital Times (Madison.com) Top DOT official tells staff not to mention free voter ID cards to the public — unless they ask "An internal memo from a top Department of Transportation official instructs workers at Division of Motor Vehicles service centers not to tell members of the public that they can obtain voter identification cards free of charge - unless they know to ask for it. The memo was sent to all state Department of Transportation and Department of Motor Vehicles employees on July 1, the same day employees were to begin issuing photo IDs in accordance with a controversial new Voter Photo ID law adopted earlier in the year."
• September 6, 2011 Assault on Voting Rights Panel This Thursday The Lawyers' Committee is hosting an exciting panel discussion exploring how we can best fight back against the current assault on voting rights this Thursday at 10 a.m.
• September 6, 2011 MCJ's Reilly Morse Contributes to Latest Brookings Publication on the Aftermath of Katrina With the recent passing of the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, The Brookings Institution published the book, “Resilience and Opportunity: Lessons from the Gulf Coast after Katrina and Rita,” highlighting strategies used to recover from the devastating tragedy and offering critical analysis of the lessons learned. The book includes a chapter by one of the Lawyers’ Committee’s close partners, Reilly Morse of the Mississippi Center for Justice (MCJ), entitled “Come On in This House: Advancing Social Equity in Post-Katrina Mississippi.” Morse’s chapter deals with recovery along the sometimes forgotten coast of Mississippi, particularly with regards to the social injustices manifested in attempts at redevelopment.
• September 1, 2011 Barbara Arnwine Speaks as a Panelist at EPA’s Environmental Justice Conference in Detroit, Discusses Agency Failure to Enforce Title VI Lawyers’ Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine participated on a panel called “Tools for Agency Accountability and Community Resolution: Civil Rights, Human Rights, Environmental Benefits Agreements, SEPs and Other Tools.” A poignant theme that emerged from the conversations was the longstanding failure of EPA to enforce Title VI environmental justice complaints. “We’re here in this frustration because we’ve been talking about this for decades," Barbara noted.
• August 31, 2011 DOJ Says that More Information Needed from SC to Prove that New Voter ID Law Won’t Disenfranchise The U.S. Department of Justice has told South Carolina it needs to provide further evidence that its new voter ID law will not disenfranchise minority voters before it will pre-clear the law. The Lawyers’ Committee would like to thank the more than 1,300 people who participated in our call to action and sent letters to the DOJ encouraging them to strictly scrutinize South Carolina’s proposed voting. Without your help, this may not have been possible!
• August 30, 2011  |  All Things Considered 'Left Out': Post-Katrina Housing Battle Continues "In Biloxi, railroad tracks separate some of the neighborhoods that got the most help from those who got little or no aid..."
• August 29, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Applauds Judge's Decision to Block Enforcement of Alabama's Extreme Anti-Immigrant Law On August 29, 2011 U.S. District Judge Sharon K. Blackburn blocked enforcement of Alabama’s extreme anti-immigrant law, the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, HB 56, which passed earlier this summer. HB 56 is designed to impede the movement of people, discourage contact with people suspected of unlawful presence, and turns everyday Alabama citizens and school teachers into de facto immigration agents. HB 56 also subjects citizens and lawfully present non-citizens to arrest, detention, harassment and racial profiling.
• August 24, 2011  |  Voting Rights Project Lawyers’ Committee and Partners Complete Review of Ohio’s Election Administration Plans As part of a landmark settlement of a federal lawsuit aimed at dramatically improving the administration of elections in Ohio, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee) and the League of Women Voters of Ohio (LWV Ohio), in collaboration with Lawyers’ Committee pro bono partners Arnold & Porter LLP and Proskauer Rose LLP recently completed a review of Ohio’s Election Administration Plans (EAPs) prepared by county boards of elections prior to the 2010 general election. The review revealed that approximately half of the thirty-two Plans reviewed were either deficient or minimal in key areas of election administration.
• August 22, 2011  |  Voting Rights Project Michigan Failing to Offer Voter Registration to Public Assistance Clients: National Voting Rights Groups Put Secretary of State Johnson on Notice of Voting Rights Violations Citing clear evidence that the State of Michigan is failing to provide low-income residents with a legally-mandated opportunity to register to vote, attorneys from the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), Demos, Project Vote, and the NAACP sent a pre-litigation notice letter on August 19, 2011 to Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, on behalf of the Michigan State Conference of the NAACP. The letter demands that the Secretary immediately act to bring Michigan into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) or face litigation.
• August 17, 2011  |  Reuters, New York Daily News, Law 360, Long Island Business News Court Shut Down of NY Loan Scammer Homesafe America Picked Up By Reuters, New York Daily News, etc. This week the Nassau County Supreme Court issued a sweeping order shutting down one of New York’s largest mortgage scam operations pending trial. The order is the most substantial victory to date in a year-long legal campaign against “loan modification scams” in New York and nationwide. The court order ceases the operations of Homesafe America Inc. and its successor corporation, United Solutions Law Firm, which are alleged to have scammed more than a thousand low- and middle-income homeowners by falsely promising to help customers modify the terms of their mortgages. News coverage on this case after the jump.
• August 16, 2011  |  SHELTERFORCE Community Land Trusts Go Commercial "The idea of turning the community land trust model into an economic development tool is attracting growing interest, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions about how it would work..."
• August 12, 2011  |  Black Enterprise 5 Signs of a Foreclosure Rescue Scam On July 31, the National Bar Association held a panel to discuss the impact of the foreclosure crisis on communities of color at its 86th annual convention and exhibits. Black Enterprise spoke with two of the panelists -- Yolanda D. McGill, senior counsel of the Fair Housing and Lending Project with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Vicki King Taitano, director of the Foreclosure Legal Assistance Project with the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau...
• August 12, 2011  |  www.mysanantonio.com Veterans Affairs Photo IDs Not Enough to Vote in Texas The controversial voter ID bill in Texas would exclude VA photo IDs from the list of accepted photo IDs required to vote.
• August 10, 2011  |  Lawyers' Committee Announcement: PREP will hold a workshop and consultation clinic in San Diego on August 20th! PREP will participate in the New ERAA Back to School Conference, Rally for Education & Festival on Saturday, August 20, 2011 in San Diego at Lincoln High School, 4777 Imperial Ave, San Diego, CA 92113.
• August 9, 2011  |  Lawyers' Committee Lawyers’ Committee Joins Other Civil Rights Organizations in Brief Asserting that Parochial School Teachers are Not Categorically Exempt from Federal Statutes Prohibiting Employment Discrimination The Lawyers Committee joined seven other civil rights organizations in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in the Supreme Court case of Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church v. EEOC, No. 10-553.
• August 6, 2011  |  Politico States’ Rights Redux: Voting Rights Act + 46 States’ rights is code for discrimination. A century and a half ago, some states asserted the right to leave the union. We fought the nation’s bloodiest conflict, then admitted the traitors back into the country on generous terms. Though our Confederate brothers and sisters died defending the enslavement of African-Americans, we did this in the name of peace and forgiveness.
• August 6, 2011 The Voting Rights Act at 46: A Time for Reflection The anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a reason to celebrate. Forty-six years after President Lyndon Johnson signed this transformational piece of legislation into law, the Act still evokes the struggles of the civil rights community and its allies to guarantee equal access to the polls. This year’s commemoration, however, must be tempered by the resolve to face new challenges threatening the progress that was made possible by the Voting Rights Act.
• August 5, 2011 Lawyers' Committee and Partners Ask DOJ to Block South Carolina's New Photo Voter ID Law On August 5, 2011, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, American Civil Liberties Union's Southern Regional Office, Brennan Center for Justice, and League of Women Voters of South Carolina wrote to the Department of Justice urging a denial of preclearance for the state's new photo voter ID law.
• August 3, 2011  |  USA Today New Orleans unveils fresh model for housing the poor "The Magnolia Projects, once one of the city's most notorious public housing complexes, today is Harmony Oaks Apartments, a 460-unit mix of government-subsidized and market-priced apartments. It replaces one of six public housing projects across the city recently razed to make room for new apartments and a fresh approach to housing the city's poor..."
• August 1, 2011 CDP visits Clients on the Gulf Coast Last week, CDP’s legal interns, legal assistant and associate counsel visited several clients in New Orleans and Mississippi. The group had performed weeks of research and writing, which was presented to several clients, including Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative (housing finance options), Crescent City CLT (internal corporate policies and 501c3 status), and Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance (bylaws and articles of incorporation).
• August 1, 2011 Deceptive Absentee Ballots Sent to Wisconsin Voters Wisconsin voters in at least two state senate districts have reportedly received misleading absentee ballots, underlining the need for legislation that combats voter deception and intimidation during and around elections.
• July 29, 2011 Protecting Voting Rights in Florida Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Executive Director Barbara Arnwine and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, President and Founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, released the following statement in response to the action by the Florida Secretary of State to withdraw portions of the voter suppression act (HB 1355) from consideration by the Department of Justice.
• July 27, 2011 Lawyers Committee Joins 26 Other Advocacy Groups in Brief Asserting the Right of Employees to Pursue Workplace-Related Claims through Collective Action On July 27, 2011, the Lawyers Committee joined with 26 advocacy groups in filing a friend-of-the-court brief with the National Labor Relations Board in the case of D.R. Horton, Inc. v. Cuda. The brief argues that an employer’s imposition of a contractual provision prohibiting employees from pursuing workplace-related claims as collective actions or class actions violates the right of employees to engage in concerted activity with other employees, a right guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act of 1937 (NLRA).
• July 26, 2011  |  BET.com Floridians Protest New Voting Law; Civil rights groups have urged the Justice Department to reject the law. “The state is getting rid of a practice that has been relied on by minority citizens for a long time. Voter registration groups like the NAACP and the League of Women Voters are now under some really onerous restrictions,” said Marcia Johnson-Blanco, co-director of the Lawyers’ Committee’s voting rights program.
• July 26, 2011  |  Employment Discrimination and Public Policy Projects Lawyers' Committee Encourages EEOC Vigilance in Battle Against Employment Discrimination on the Basis of Background Checks On July 26, the EEOC convened a hearing on Title VII violations resulting from employers’ misuse of criminal background checks. In support of the event, the Lawyers' Committee submitted testimony outlining the existing problems with such background checks and the disparate impact that they have on minorities while also encouraging the EEOC to vigorously enforce Title VII protections in cases of discriminatory misuse of criminal background checks.
• July 25, 2011  |  Seattle PI 50-Plus Americans a Favorite Target of Mortgage Rescue Scammers "Older Americans are among the hardest hit by scams preying on distressed homeowners by offering foreclosure counseling or loan modification assistance for a fee..."
• July 25, 2011  |  Charleston Democrat Examiner Getting the "free" Voter ID in Wisconsin an ordeal Getting the "free" Voter ID in Wisconsin proves to be an ordeal for one citizen whose personal banking statement was scrutinized.
• July 25, 2011  |  Educational Opportunities Project Lawyers' Committee Supports New Supportive School Discipline Initiative The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law welcomes Attorney General Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announcement of the creation of the Supportive School Discipline Initiative. The Lawyers’ Committee is dedicated to promoting federal, state, and local initiatives to address the school-to-prison pipeline and supports Attorney General Holder’s and Secretary Duncan’s joint initiative.
• July 24, 2011  |  Columbus Dispatch New Ohio Law Ends Popular Voting Options 234,000 absentee or early ballots that new law ends were cast in county in 2008.
• July 24, 2011  |  Philadelphia Tribune Voter I.D. laws bring thoughts of ‘Jim Crow’ “Republicans are imposing laws all over the country, acting like … voter fraud is rampant, and it’s ridiculous,” Wasserman Schultz said. The National Republican Congressional Committee responded by accusing the four-term Democratic congresswoman of making “absurd accusations” and “offensive remarks.” In a statement the Republican committee said, “Wasserman Schultz will ‘literally’ say anything.” Schultz later recanted and said “Jim Crow was the wrong analogy to use.” But there are those who agree with her and Clinton. Particularly, Marcia F. Johnson-Blanco, Co-director of the Voting Rights Project Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
• July 22, 2011 Lawyers' Committee's Prevent Loan Scams Project Releases Issue Brief, "Seniors Among Hardest Hit by Foreclosure Rescue Scams" The Lawyers’ Committee’s Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network, a joint initiative of the Committee’s Legal Mobilization and Fair Housing & Fair Lending Projects, released an Issue Brief highlighting the plight of senior Americans, one of the many groups of homeowners in real distress who are particularly vulnerable to suffering at the hands of foreclosure rescue scammers.
• July 20, 2011  |  NBC Bay Area News Plaintiff in CA Class Action Against Mortgage Modification Scammer Interviewed on NBC Bay Area News Judy Jones, a plaintiff in the Lawyers' Committee's class action suit against RewireMyLoan.com and related entities, talks to NBC about her first-hand experience with this foreclosure rescue scam operation and how homeowners can recognize the tell-tale signs of a mortgage scam in the future.
• July 19, 2011  |  Times-Picayune / NOLA Gambit Blight-fighting projects are awarded $1.5 million in grants The Community Revitalization Fund on Friday announced it will give $1.5 million in grants to four organizations that work on countering blight and rebuilding neighborhood...
• July 15, 2011 Article Published Highlighting Ways Funders Can Support Fair Housing Advocates This month, the Neighborhood Funders’ Group featured an article by Joe Rich, Director of the Fair Housing and Fair Lending Project at the Lawyers’ Committee, which outlines suggestions as to how funders can support fair housing advocates as they fight for improved enforcement of the AFFH provision and more comprehensive fair housing regulations.
• July 15, 2011  |  Voting Rights Project Lawyers' Committee Asks DOJ to Block Voter Suppression Law in Florida The Lawyers’ Committee has filed a lengthy comment letter with the Justice Department, urging the Department to exercise its authority under the Voting Rights Act to block a new Florida law that would impose onerous and unnecessary limitations on grassroots voter registration drives.
• July 14, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Releases a Preliminary Analysis of the Implications of Wal-Mart v. Dukes on the Future of Employment Discrimination Class Actions The Supreme Court's decision on June 20, 2011, in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, 10-277, radically altered the long-standing judicial framework for assessing whether plaintiffs can bring cases as class actions. With this sweeping decision, the Court cast aside the traditional role that an appellate court is supposed to play in reviewing lower court decisions and set new rules for employment class action litigation. So, what will this decision mean for future employment class action cases?
• July 8, 2011 Educational Opportunities and Public Policy Projects Express Support for "The Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students Act (S. 919)" On July 7th, the Lawyers' Committee's Educational Opportunities and Public Policy Projects joined the Dignity in Schools Coalition's letter of support to Chairman Harkin on The Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students Act (S. 919).
• July 7, 2011 Initial Victories in New Cases Filed against Two of New York’s Largest Mortgage Scammers The Lawyers’ Committee is pleased to report on two sweeping court orders from the New York State Supreme Court that restrain the activities of alleged loan modification scammers, providing early victories for financially vulnerable homeowners. The rulings pertain to two new cases filed last week by the Lawyers’ Committee and its pro bono counsel Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP in New York.
• July 7, 2011  |  WBAI Wake Up Call Lawyers' Committee's Loan Scam Campaign and NY Cases Featured on NYC WBAI's Morning News WBAI Radio's "Wake Up Call" morning news program interviews Lawyers' Committee Counsel Eunice Rho about our newest loan scam cases filed in New York. Ms. Rho also highlights some key warning signs of a possible loan modification scam and how these mainly internet-based schemes target wide populations and leave homeowners in extreme financial distress.
• July 7, 2011 Lawyers’ Committee Applauds Federal Court Decision Striking Down Michigan Affirmative Action Ban On Friday, July 1, 2011, a panel of judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action v. Regents of the University of Michigan striking down a 2006 amendment to the Michigan Constitution banning affirmative action in admissions and hiring decisions in higher education and public agencies. The Court found that the amendment’s reordering of the political structure to the disadvantage of racial minorities amounted to an unconstitutional violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The Lawyers’ Committee applauds this decision and is committed to promoting opportunity and diversity in higher education.
• July 6, 2011  |  San Francisco Chronicle CA Lawsuit Goes After Loan Modification Fraud Bay Area attorneys and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in June filed one of California's first class-action lawsuits against alleged loan-modification scammers in the San Jose area. SFGate reports: "The complaint said the defendants collected up to $4,995 each from victims for the promised loan modifications, and offered a 100 percent money-back guarantee, but then neither delivered the loan modifications nor refunded the payments. At least 90 Santa Clara County families were victimized, the complaint said..."
• June 29, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Submits Testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee for their Hearing on "Barriers to Justice and Accountability: How the Supreme Court's Recent Rulings Will Affect Corporate Behavior" The Public Policy Department submitted a testimony statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing the Supreme Court’s recent reinterpretation of Rule 23(a), governing class action certification. The hearing, convened by Senator Leahy, addressed possible congressional responses to the Court’s reinterpretation of legislative civil procedure rules in Wal-Mart v. Dukes and AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion.
• June 28, 2011  |  American Bar Association's Human Rights Magazine, Volume 37, Number 4, Fall 2010 The Civil War and Its Uncivil Impact in the Current Struggle for Civil Rights Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Executive Director Barbara Arnwine recently penned an article for the ABA's Human Rights Magazine regarding the emergence of revisionist history on the Civil War in response to the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War commemorations held by many Southern states. Published in Human Rights, Volume 37, Number 4, Fall 2010. © 2010 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
• June 23, 2011  |  Black Voices News Article on "The Conspiracy to Steal the 2012 Election" Featuring Barbara Arnwine and the Lawyers' Committee's Map of Shame Barbara Arnwine, leader of the D.C. based Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, is on a mission. She wants to make sure that every citizen has the right to vote. On its face, it seems like a retro mission, since the right to vote has long been established. But one look at her Map of Shame, a map she shared at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s 40th Anniversary and annual conference, and the mission becomes quite urgent.
• June 22, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Opposes Louisiana Charter School Bill, HB 421 The Educational Opportunities Project and Public Policy Department have issued a joint statement in opposition to new charter school legislation passed this week in Louisiana. The legislation, awaiting Gov. Jindal’s signature, permits corporations to reserve up to fifty percent of a public charter school’s enrollment for children of its employees, in exchange for a corporation making a donation to the school valuing at least fifty percent of the school’s state funding.
• June 14, 2011  |  Clearinghouse Review Article on Katrina Settlement by Fair Housing Project Director Published in Clearinghouse Review An article detailing the history behind the November 2010 Katrina Recovery settlement between HUD and Mississippi has been published in the May/June 2011 issue of the Clearinghouse Review.
• June 10, 2011  |  The Recorder and The Daily Journal California Loan Scam Case in the Recorder and Daily Journal "The complaint alleges Nathanson "sat atop a loan modification scam network" that funneled desperate homeowners threatened by foreclosure to his prior law firm. The lawsuit claims RewireMyLoan.com served as an intermediary between Nathanson and borrowers, promising to help with loan modification services, collecting documentation and directing homeowners to the lawyer in exchange for a cut of the upfront fees. Rewire guaranteed to refund homeowners' payments if Nathanson failed to acquire loan modifications, the plaintiffs' lawyers allege, but never followed through on the promise..."
• June 10, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Acknowledges the 48th Anniversary of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 While much progress has been made since the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, today we acknowledge the continuous discrimination that women experience in the workplace in regards to the compensation they receive for their work. On the 48th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, join us in encouraging Congress to do more - ask your Congressional representatives to support the Fair Pay Act of 2011!
• June 9, 2011 Lawyers’ Committee Files Lawsuit Against California Mortgage Scam Scheme On June 8, 2011, the Loan Modification Scam Prevention litigation team of the Lawyers’ Committee, in conjunction with the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, filed a class action lawsuit in California on behalf of vulnerable local homeowners victimized by a network of scam artists. The plaintiffs believe that over 90 California homeowners have been injured by this scam. This complaint is the second case brought by the Lawyers’ Committee as a part of its nationwide legal campaign to combat foreclosure rescue fraud and mortgage modification scams.
• June 7, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Celebrates Favorable Supreme Court Opinion in Fox v. Vice On June 6, 2011, the Supreme Court unanimously reversed an order that awarded attorney’s fees against a civil rights plaintiff because he had joined a frivolous federal claim with a clearly substantial claim under state law. The Court reiterated and amplified the standards for applying many federal civil rights statutes that contain provisions for fee shifting. The Lawyers' Committee supported Mr. Fox by joining an amicus brief.
• May 26, 2011 Executive Director Barbara Arnwine in The Root: ID Laws Burdensome for Minority and Low Income Voters Barbara Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, was quoted in an article in The Root describing the effects of new voter ID laws on black voters.
• May 26, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Regrets Supreme Court Decision Upholding the "Legal Arizona Workers Act" The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law regrets the Supreme Court’s 5-3 decision on May 26, 2011, in the case of Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting. The Supreme Court’s decision upheld the constitutionality of an Arizona anti-immigrant law known as the "Legal Arizona Workers Act." That state law imposes sanctions, including rescinding of the right to do business in Arizona, for employers who employ unauthorized aliens and requires employers to verify that employees are authorized to work by using an electronic system which is so unreliable that 18% of the workers initially found ineligible through the system are in fact eligible to work.
• May 17, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Announces Next PREP Event in San Diego, California On Saturday, June 4, 2011, PREP will hold a workshop on Parents' Rights and Responsibilities: Special Education Workshop and Educational Consultation Clinic at Cherokee Point Elementary School.
• May 17, 2011 Reflections on the 57th Anniversary of the Landmark Brown v. Board of Education Today’s 57th Anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision provides an opportunity for the Lawyers’ Committee and civil rights advocates to reflect on our national progress towards achieving equality and justice for all. At the heart of the Brown decision is the maxim that “separate is not equal” – and it is of profound importance that we strive for and celebrate diversity in all forms...
• May 12, 2011  |  BaltimoreSun.com Lawyers' Committee Gives Oral Argument in Maryland HBCU Case Lawyers' Committee's Jon Greenbaum argued before Judge Catherine Blake on a motion for summary judgment filed by Maryland's Higher Education Commission.
• May 7, 2011 May PREP Workshop and Clinic a Success! The May 7th workshop and clinic, held at Sherman Elementary School in San Diego, covered issues related to "School Discipline: Parent's Rights and Responsibilities" and helped parents develop skills to enable them to be better educational advocates for their children.
• May 6, 2011  |  U.S. Department of Education Lawyers' Committee Applauds Release of Federal Guidance: Equal Access to Educational Opportunity Regardless of Citizenship or Immigration Status On May 6, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Department of Education (DOE) issued guidance highlighting the obligation of school districts to provide equal educational opportunities to all children regardless of race, color, national origin, citizenship or immigration status, or the immigration status of their parents.
• May 6, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Celebrates Favorable Ruling in Fourth Circuit Sexual Harassment Case The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on May 6, 2011, in the case of Harris v. Baltimore, reinstated a claim of workplace sex discrimination arising out of a workplace atmosphere that was highly sexualized and offensive. The Lawyers’ Committee supported Ms. Harris’ appeal along with other civil rights groups who joined an amicus brief prepared by the National Women’s Law Center.
• May 5, 2011  |  OurWeekly HUD Launches Anti-Scam Campaign HUD launches a campaign against loan modification scams called, “Know It. Avoid It. Report It.” in targeted cities Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami. LMSPN's Yolanda McGill traveled to California to help launch the program.
• April 29, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Submits Comments on the Environmental Justice Permitting Section of EPA's Draft Plan EJ 2014 In their comment letter, the Lawyers' Committee makes recommendations for including environmental justice issues in the environmental permitting process, recommendations which are drawn from its 2009 report "Now is the Time: Environmental Injustice in the U.S. and Recommendations for Eliminating Disparities.
• April 27, 2011 Lawyers' Committee's Eric Marshall Testifies Against WI Voter ID The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law's Manager of Legal Mobilization submitted testimony opposing Wisconsin Assembly Bill 7 - requiring government-issued photo identification in order to vote - stating that it would, "make Wisconsin among the most restrictive election systems in the country."
• April 27, 2011 Lawyers’ Committee Regrets Supreme Court Ruling in AT&T Mobility, LLC v. Concepcion The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law regrets the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision on April 27, 2011 that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts states from determining that a class action waiver provision in an arbitration agreement is unconscionable under state law and thus unenforceable.
• April 25, 2011 The Case Against Florida Senate Bill 2086 The Lawyers' Committee's Marcia Johnson-Blanco submits written testimony on Florida Senate Bill 2086 before the Senate Budget Committee.
• April 22, 2011 On Earth Day, We Reflect On the State of Environmental Injustice On Earth Day 2011, the Lawyers’ Committee would like to briefly reflect on the movement for environmental justice in America, an ideal that is often hard to pinpoint. At the movement’s core, environmental justice advocates seek to ensure that no one community shoulders the burdens and dangers associated with environmental hazards more than any other. Concentrations of pollution – including landfills, polluting industries, nuclear waste, and so on – in vulnerable communities leaves a stain on us all. As EPA administrator Lisa Jackson puts it, “If their air is not clean, then my air is not clean. If they can’t drink their water, you can’t drink your water either.”
• April 14, 2011 2012 Election Begins: Legislative Initiatives Are Targeting Vulnerable Voters With the 2012 election less than two years away, voter suppression efforts are already in high gear across the nation. There is a persistent and well-coordinated effort in state legislatures to deter certain voters from access to the ballot.
• April 14, 2011  |  Great Falls Tribune Governor Schweitzer Vetoes Montana Photo ID Bill The Great Falls Tribune reports that Montana Governor Schweitzer has vetoed, among other bills, one that would eliminate same-day voter registration and another that would impose stringent voter ID requirements. The vetoes were emphasized with an outdoor ceremony in which the Governor used a heated brand reading "VETO" to burn the word into wooden plaques representing the rejected bills. The governor noted that all the bills vetoed "are either frivolous, unconstitutional or in direct contradiction to the expressed will of the people of Montana."
• April 14, 2011  |  Washington Post New Orleans schools ‘miracle’ not so miraculous "The New Oreans Recovery School District -- where nearly 75 percent of the public schools are charter schools -- has become the focus of a lot of attention in school reform circles based on rising test scores, so it seems worthwhile [to look] at the success claims of the 38,000-student district."
• April 12, 2011 Equal Pay Day 2011: Acknowledging the Gendered Pay Gap Today, 48 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, women still make only 77 cents for each dollar that their male co-workers earn for performing the same job duties.
• April 12, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Applauds Maryland's Progress toward Preventing Discrimination on the Basis of Credit Checks On April 12, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley signed the Job Applicant Fairness Act, making Maryland the 5th state to pass legislation limiting the use of credit checks in the employment context.
• April 8, 2011 Lawyers' Committee and Other Leading Civil Rights Organizations Urge Congress to Institute ESEA Accountability Principles Civil rights groups call on Congress to put "a meaningful federal accountability framework should directly protect historically disadvantaged subgroups of children" into place during the ESEA reauthorization process.
• April 3, 2011 "We Are One" -- On the Anniversary of Dr. King's Assassination, We Stood in Solidarity As the nation marked the 43rd anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's assassination, it is important for the American public to remember the historic and continuing role of protecting and maintaining workers' rights as part of civil rights progress.
• March 30, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Urges Opposition to H.R. 471, DC Voucher Bill The House voted 225-195 to pass a DC Voucher Bill on March 30, 2011
• March 28, 2011  |  Lawyers' Committee's Educational Opportunities Project Lawyers' Committee Celebrates Success of First PREP Workshop in San Diego On Saturday, March 26, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law launched its Parental Readiness and Empowerment Program (PREP) with a parent workshop at Porter Elementary School in San Diego, California. The workshop, “School Discipline: Parents’ Rights & Responsibilities,” was a great success with about twenty parents, school administrators, and teachers in attendance and contributing to a lively discussion on school discipline.
• March 24, 2011  |  Huffington Post Huffington Post Article Featuring New York Loan Scam Case and LMSPN "Shukran is one of nine plaintiffs in what a lawsuit filed last week in Nassau County Supreme Court describes as an "elaborate network" of affiliated companies that have operated under such names as "Save My Home," "Save My Home Now," "Express Modifications" and "Express Home Solutions."..."
• March 24, 2011  |  Trice Edney News Wire Women Celebrate Their Historic Impact on Black Agenda Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine, featured panelist -- "Exacerbating the unemployment rate among Blacks, she said, is the misuse of barriers to block people from employment such as using their bad credit histories against them and misusing arrest records and criminal histories. She said the Lawyers’ Committee has been focused on those barriers and is even prepared to litigate where necessary to end the employment discrimination."
• March 23, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Provides Written Testimony on PA and OH Voter ID Bills Testimony urges Pennsylvania and Ohio not to enact barriers to the ballot and to consider the negative impact that the proposed voter ID bill would have on traditionally disenfranchised voters.
• March 22, 2011 Lawyers’ Committee Applauds Supreme Court Ruling in Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. Supreme Court rules that Employees Making Oral Objections to Violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (Minimum Wages and Overtime) are Protected from Retaliation
• March 18, 2011 New Fair Housing Suit Filed Against Huntington, NY On March 17, 2011, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the law firm of Skadden Arps renewed their efforts to ensure the development of affordable housing that is available to minorities and families with children in the Town of Huntington, New York by filing a new complaint and a motion for preliminary injunction.
• March 10, 2011  |  Wall Street Journal Lawyers' Committee's NY Loan Scam Suit Featured in WSJ Since February 2010, when the Lawyer's Committee began keeping track of modification fraud complaints, more than 10,000 homeowners nationwide have claimed they were victims of similar scams resulting in more than $27 million in losses. About 500 of those complaints are from New York, which the claimants said resulted in more than $2 million in losses.
• March 9, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Files Lawsuit against “Elaborate Network” of NY Scam Companies This lawsuit against "Save My Home" is the first action brought in a nationwide legal campaign to target foreclosure rescue fraud and mortgage modification scams.
• March 6, 2011 LCCRUL Submits Report to UN Cmte. on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination In honor of the Year of People of African Descent, the Lawyers’ Committee discussed accomplishments in combating discrimination in the US and challenges to the same.
• March 4, 2011 Lawyers’ Committee Files Fair Housing Complaint with HUD against Long Island Town On March 3, the Lawyers’ Committee filed a fair housing complaint with HUD against Huntington, NY, alleging that the town has failed to meet its obligation under the FHA to affirmatively further fair housing.
• March 1, 2011 Supreme Court Upholds "Cat's Paw" Theory in Case of Staub v. Proctor Hospital The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law applauds the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision on March 1, 2011, in Staub v. Proctor Hospital. The Supreme Court’s decision reversed that of the Seventh Circuit, which found that Proctor Hospital was not liable for anti-military employment discrimination against Vincent Staub because the hospital’s decision-maker had relied on more than the bias of two supervisors in determining to fire Mr. Staub.
• February 28, 2011 Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network Featured on My Carolina Today The Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network's Yolanda McGill appeared on My Carolina Today, a morning show produced at the WNCN NBC-17 studios in Raleigh, NC.
• February 16, 2011 Executive Director Barbara Arnwine Serves as Crowell & Moring's "Celebrating Diversity" Luncheon Speaker "We all must do our parts in leveling the playing field for low-income and minority communities, including demanding systemic change."
• February 16, 2011 Voting Rights Project Defends Section 5 of the VRA in Federal Court The Project represents Shelby County resident Bobby Lee Harris, who intervened in the case to defend Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
• February 10, 2011  |  Daytona Times The State of the Union from a civil rights perspective I appreciate President Obama’s commitment toward alleviating the economic depression and look forward to continued work with this administration and Congress in achieving this goal. However, to "out-innovate, out-educate and outbuild the rest of the world," as stated by the president, we must eliminate special barriers confronting our most vulnerable citizens – low-income and communities of color – which are disproportionately affected. Until these vast disparities are addressed and systematically dismantled, our future economic viability will never be fully realized.
• February 7, 2011 Lawyers' Committee and Partners Write Letter Opposing Missouri Voter ID Bills The letter expressed strong opposition to Missouri HJR 14 and HB 329 and urged members of the House Elections Committee to vote “no” on both bills, saying that they would "enshrine anti-democratic, discriminatory and costly provisions into the Missouri State Constitution."
• February 1, 2011 Lawyers' Committee Defends the Constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act February 2 in Federal District Court Oral Argument on cross-motions for summary judgment in Shelby County v. Holder will occur on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. before Judge John Bates. This case, challenging the constitutionality of Section 5 of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, was brought by Shelby County, Alabama. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law represents defendant-intervenor Bobby Lee Harris and will present oral argument in defense of the statute along with the United States Department of Justice, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF), and the American Civil Liberties Union.
• January 29, 2011 Lawyers' Committee to Co-Host Educational Rights Clinic for New Orleans Parents The Educational Rights Project co-hosted an Educational Rights Clinic for New Orleans parents of children with disabilities on Saturday, January 29, 2011, in conjunction with attorneys and advocates from Southern Poverty Law Center, Pyramid Community Parent Resource Center, and Loyola University New Orleans’ Community Justice Clinic, in addition to receiving outreach support from the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana and Families & Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children.
• January 25, 2011  |  The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Turkey Creek Community Initiatives, a CDP client, is Featured on the Daily Show Derrick Evans, the head of Turkey Creek Community Initiatives - one of the Lawyers' Committee's oldest clients - was featured on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart during the January 24 episode. In the segment, Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac briefly discusses the important history of Turkey Creek, which is located in Gulfport, Mississippi and was founded by freed slaves. The community is still predominantly African American today, though Cenac points out the irony that birds' habitats seem to get more attention and protection than African American heritage and homes.
• January 24, 2011 Supreme Court Upholds Right to Sue for Retaliation Based on Actions Taken Against Family Members and Close Associates of an Employee Complaining of Discrimination The Lawyers' Committee applauds the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision that Thompson, who claims he was fired because his fiancée filed a sex discrimination charge against their mutual employer, has the right to pursue a retaliation claim under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
• January 20, 2011  |  The Kojo Nnamdi Show (WAMU Radio) Legacy of Segregation in Public Higher Education? More than a decade ago, Maryland committed to dismantling whatever remained of its formerly segregated higher education system. Now, four Historically Black Institutions have brought suit, saying the state has not lived up to its end of the bargain. We explore the issues at the heart of the case. Lawyers' Committe Legal Director Jon Greenbaum and David Burton Morgan State alumus and president of Maryland Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Higher Education joined Kojo Nnamdi to discuss “The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education vs. Maryland's Higher Education Commission.”
• January 18, 2011 Federal Appeals Court Unanimously Upholds Race-Conscious Admissions Policy at University of Texas The Lawyers’ Committee applauds the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimous decision to uphold the University of Texas' (UT) race conscious admission policies.
• January 17, 2011  |  Dick Gregory-Global Watch Still Striving for King's Dream After celebrating the remarkable life and legacy of civil rights icon and leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 82nd anniversary of his birth and the 25th anniversary of the national holiday in his honor, it is essential to recognize that our nation continues to grapple with the influence and role of race in our society. It is also a time to honor his dream by practicing what he preached and conducting individual and collective efforts to realize that for which he tirelessly advocated.
• January 12, 2011 Lawyers' Committee, NAACP LDF, and ACLU File Amicus Brief in Doe v. Lower Merion The amicus was filed in support of the Lower Merion school district’s ability to implement a race conscious redistricting plan.
• January 12, 2011  |  Texas PBS Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network and Yolanda McGill Featured in Texas PBS Special Texas PBS in cooperation with the Texas Foreclosure Prevention Task Force and NeighborWorks® America continues to air a 30-minute special which debuted in December concerning the ongoing morass of loan modification and foreclosure scams.
• January 10, 2011  |  National Law Journal Separation Anxiety: In Maryland, a $2 billion suit reopens the fight over segregation in public higher education. In The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education vs. Maryland's Higher Education Commission, plaintiffs argue that "Throughout history and up to the present day, Maryland has maintained a racially segregated system of higher education and has systematically and purposefully engaged in a pattern and practice of racial discrimination that has prevented [public Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Maryland] from achieving parity with their traditionally White institution counterparts." Along with Kirkland & Ellis and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, plaintiffs' lawyers include the Howard University Civil Rights Clinic and John Brittain, one of the nation's leading education discrimination attorneys.
• January 7, 2011 LMSPN's PreventLoanScams.org Highlighted by National Coalition as Consumer Tool The Lawyers’ Committee’s Prevent Loan Scams project, a key component of the national Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network campaign, has recently been highlighted by a national consumer protection coalition as a valuable resource in the fight against foreclosure rescue/loan modification fraud.
• January 3, 2011  |  Louisiana Weekly Ignoring crippling racial inequalities is condemnable As the year 2010 draws to its conclusion, once again the issue of race in America has jumped to the top of public commentary with the appalling remarks by Governor Haley Barbour, which praised the segregationist Citizens Council in his hometown of Yazoo, Mississippi.
• December 21, 2010 Victory in New Mexico Voter Registration Case On December 21, 2010, U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera issued an important ruling in a case in which the Voting Rights Project represents the plaintiff challenging the failure of the State of New Mexico to properly implement the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 at the State's public assistance offices. The Court found that the State is violating the NVRA because its policy is to provide voter registration forms to public assistance clients only if the clients make an affirmative request to register to vote.
• December 20, 2010  |  NYT PreventLoanScams.org mention in NYT Article: Hiring a Lawyer for Loan-Modification Help According to PreventLoanScams.org, a new online site operated by the nonprofit Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, homeowners should be cautious about: any guarantees that a loan will be modified, since not all can be; requests for an upfront fee or that the property title be signed over to a third party; and offers to redirect the monthly mortgage payments to a third party who will forward them to the lender or mortgage servicer.
• December 10, 2010 LAWYERS' COMMITTEE PLEASED THAT HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PASSES THE DREAM ACT; URGES SENATE SUPPORT The U.S. House of Representative’s December 8th vote to pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act marks a significant accomplishment in favor of the American Dream for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have worked so fervently to navigate their way through educational and professional development in the United States. By passing this bill, the House has shown a remarkable investment in opportunities for these immigrants to continue to become valuable members of society. We encourage the Senate to follow suit in passing the bill in the name of equal access these undocumented Americans so richly deserve.
• December 2, 2010  |  The Washington Informer A Separate and Unequal Education in the 21st Century This article by the Lawyers' Committee's Brenda Shum and Tanya Clay House explores the problem of modern school re-segregation. It also discusses the efforts that the Lawyers' Committee and its partners are taking to stop this terrible trend and establish equal access to a quality education as a civil right. In recognition of National Education Week, the Lawyers' Committee urges the public to recognize the devastating consequences of modern resegregation, to remember the benefits of diverse learning environments, and to recommit to meaningful diversity and equal access in public education.
• November 29, 2010  |  National Law Journal Lawyers’ Committee Applauds EEOC’s Ambitious Agenda, Focus on Background Checks On November 29, 2010, the National Law Journal ran an article by Jenna Greene about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the “ambitious” agenda of Chairwoman Jacqueline Berrien, an alumnus of the Lawyers’ Committee.
• November 24, 2010 FTC Issues Rule to Protect Struggling Homeowners from Loan Modification Scams The Lawyers' Committee outlines the FTC's new rule - the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services (MARS) Rule - issued on November 19, 2010.
• November 23, 2010  |  Miami Herald Miami Herald Reports on Lawyers' Committee and Outten and Golden's Appolon v. University of Miami Credit Checks Case New lawsuit contends that University of Miami credit history checks of job candidates discriminate unfairly against minorities.
• November 22, 2010 Click here to view a PDF fact sheet about the HUD-Mississippi settlement and where to go if you think you qualify for funds.
• November 18, 2010 Senate Fails to Ensure Equal Pay for Women “The Paycheck Fairness Act is critical for economic recovery for 9.9 million single-parent families headed by women. The Act would close legal loopholes to ensure equal pay for equal work.”
• November 17, 2010  |  NYTimes For Katrina Victims, Relief at Last - NYTimes Editorial It took five long years. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has finally persuaded Mississippi to do right by Hurricane Katrina survivors who were unfairly shut out of a federally financed disaster aid program designed by the state. Congress needs to rewrite disaster aid regulations so that a travesty like this one never happens again.
• November 16, 2010 Voting Rights Project Files Major Brief in Shelby County, AL v. Holder Case The Project represents Shelby County resident Bobby Lee Harris, who intervened in the case to defend Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
• November 15, 2010  |  Florida Times-Union LSMPN: Persistent Scammer Moves Just Across State Lines As states become more aware of the loan modification scams that are running rampant throughout the country, scammers are being shut down by state and local officials. However, this does not mean these scammers won’t be back with another company. Global Equity Solutions, a Florida based company run by Brian Lozito, was shut down and assets seized by Florida authorities. Three weeks later, Lozito set up shop again just 60 miles away in the state of Georgia.
• November 15, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Announces Katrina Recovery Settlement with HUD & Miss. On November 8, HUD approved a disaster recovery plan redirecting $132 million to address the unmet housing needs of low income homeowners and renters in Mississippi.
• November 14, 2010  |  Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald One Last Chance for Recovery on the Coast One final program aims to complete Katrina housing recovery by providing $132 million to repair or rebuild thousands of Katrina-damaged homes for low- to moderate-income families.
• November 13, 2010  |  Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald Sun Herald Editorial: A fine, final effort to meet housing needs One last comprehensive effort will be made to meet the unmet Hurricane Katrina-related housing needs of South Mississippians.
• November 8, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Represented at United Nation's Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review of the United States
• November 2, 2010 New York City Voters Encounter Only Scattered Problems Election Protection volunteers help monitor scattered reports of issues at the voting polls, while NYT notes that New Yorkers appear to have experienced fewer issues casting ballots this year.
• November 1, 2010 Election Protection Combatting Voter Suppression on Election Day and Before Lawyers' Committee submits amicus curaie brief in opposition to Minnesota Tea Party-related groups' lawsuit seeking to wear pins that say "Please I.D. Me" in polling places. The Judge's decision denying that request relied on the Lawyers' Committee/Election Protection position that: “The record suggests that the buttons are designed to affect the actual voting process at the polls by intimating that the voters are required to show identification before voting. This intimation could confuse voters and election officials and cause voters to refrain from voting because of increased delays or the misapprehension that identification is required.”
• October 28, 2010 Employment Discrimination Project Held Convening on Credit Checks as the Next Wave of Hiring Discrimination On October 28, 2010, the Lawyers' Committee will hold an invitation-only Credit Checks Convening to involve policymakers, researchers, and employment law professionals in a discussion of credit checks in the employment process. The panel discussion topics will be "An Overview of the Facts, the Research, and Current Legal Protections," "The Need for Policy Change," and "Developing Effective Litigation Strategies."
• October 21, 2010 Lawyers' Committee's Sarah Crawford Testified before EEOC on October 20th EDP's Sarah Crawford spoke about employer use of credit history as a screening tool for employees and applicants.
• October 21, 2010 White House Releases Report on Jobs and Economic Security for America’s Women White House report reveals troubling racial disparities in unemployment rates for women, focuses on helping women.
• October 7, 2010 Voting Rights Project Launches Searchable Index of Objections and Observers! Our tool is the most comprehensive resource available for analysis of objections and observers under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965!
• October 6, 2010 Duncan Commended for Push for More Minority Teachers The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law applauds U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s commitment to increased recruitment of African American and Latino teachers. Executive Director Barbara Arnwine of the organization said, “I agree with him wholeheartedly that the underrepresentation of minority teachers, particularly males, is alarming. This lack of positive role models and mentors in the classroom is unacceptable and is clearly contributing to the dropout rate in Latino and African American communities.”
• October 5, 2010  |  Human Resource Executive Magazine Online Curbing Credit Checks On Sept. 23, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing to discuss the Equal Employment for All Act, a bill that would make it unlawful, with certain limited exceptions, to base adverse-employment decisions against prospective and current employees on consumer credit reports. The proposed legislation, authored by Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., is gaining support, says Sarah Crawford, senior counsel of the employment-discrimination project with Washington-based Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "Congressman Cohen has been joined by 56 co-sponsors in the House, and we expect more will join him as awareness is raised on this important issue."
• September 28, 2010 Lawyers’ Committee Urges Senate to Support Legislation to Fund Black Farmer Settlement in Pigford v. Vilsack Before Adjourning for Mid-term Elections The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (Lawyers’ Committee) urges the Senate to support legislation to fund the black farmer settlement in Pigford v. Vilsack before adjourning for the Mid-term Elections. The Lawyers’ Committee has played an active role in seeking redress for African American farmers discriminated against by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for years. In an effort to achieve equity for the farmers, the Lawyers’ Committee objected to the original payment procedure in the Pigford case as inadequate and deficient, noting that potentially thousands of eligible Black farmers would be erroneously excluded from payment. Since that time, the Lawyers’ Committee has insisted that the USDA comply with the court-ordered settlement and extend benefits to those excluded.
• September 28, 2010 VRP Co-Director Bob Kengle a Panelist on ACS Voting Rights Symposium Kengle participated in “A National Dialogue on the State of Voting Rights in 2010: Past, Present, and Future.”
• September 27, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Holds Heirs' Property Workshops on the Eastern Shore in Maryland on September 24 and 25. The Lawyers' Committee, in partnership with Mid-Shore Pro Bono, held two successful workshops in Cambridge and Denton, Maryland.
• September 23, 2010 Senior Counsel for Employment Discrimination Project Testifies before House Committee in Support of Equal Employment for All Act On September 23, Employment Discrimination Project Senior Counsel Sarah Crawford and Lawyers' Committee Board Member Adam Klein testified before the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and Consumer Credit in support of the Equal Employment for All Act, H.R. 3149.
• September 22, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Supports DREAM Act "The Lawyers’ Committee’s major objective is to use the skills and resources of the bar to obtain equal opportunity for minorities by addressing factors that contribute to racial justice and economic opportunity. Particularly, our Educational Opportunities project seeks to guarantee that all students receive equal educational opportunities in public schools and institutions of higher learning. The DREAM Act supports such goals by incentivizing education as a way to achieve permanent resident status for alien residents." -- Public Policy Director Tanya Clay House
• September 22, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Supports Paycheck Fairness Act "While Congress has been actively engaged in creating solutions to the economic crisis our country is currently facing, women experience continuous discrimination in the workplace in regards to the compensation they receive for their work. It is because of this discrimination that women still lag far behind their male counterparts in performance-based compensation forty –seven years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963." -- Public Policy Director Tanya Clay House
• September 15, 2010 Primary Day in DC: Limited Resources As Voters and Election Officials Adjust to Changes
• September 14, 2010 Election Protection Off to a Great Start Assisting Primary Election Voters Washington, D.C. “The most widely reported problems this morning have been broken machines, which in most cases have been alleviated by the use of paper ballots, and lack of access to some sites,” said Marcia Johnson-Blanco, acting co-director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Voting Rights Project. “Field volunteers are on the ground to assist voters in person or place telephone calls to the appropriate election official and Election Protection experts are here to help. Voters in D.C. as well as Maryland may call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) toll-free until 8:30 p.m. EST with any questions or issues that arise at polling areas.”
• September 10, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Seeks Title VII Protection for Retaliation Against Third Parties with Supreme Court Amicus Curiae Brief On September 10, 2010, the Lawyers' Committee joined with five other advocacy groups in filing an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court case of Thompson v. North American Stainless, No. 09-291. The case presents the question of whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits an employer from firing a worker in retaliation for another worker's charge of discrimination.
• September 9, 2010 Election Protection Hotline Available to Help Voters in Washington, D.C. and New York Toll-Free Number (1-866-OUR-VOTE) Available Now; Live Assistance on Primary Election Day
• September 8, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Asks Supreme Court to Strike Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law On September 8, 2010, the Lawyers' Committee joined twelve prominent civil rights organizations in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in the Supreme Court case of Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting, 558 F.3d 856 (9th Cir. 2009), petition for cert. granted 78 U.S.L.W. 3762 (U.S. June 28, 2010) (No. 09-115). The case challenges the constitutionality of an Arizona anti-immigrant law known as the "Legal Arizona Workers Act." The state law imposes sanctions on employers who employ unauthorized aliens and requires employers to use an electronic system to verify that employees are authorized to work.
• September 5, 2010 Former President Clinton to Serve as Honorary Chair for Lawyers' Committee's 2010 Higginbotham Corporate Leadership Award Dinner The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton, who served two terms as the 42nd President of the United States, will serve as the Honorary Chair of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law's 2010 Higginbotham Corporate Leadership Award Dinner. The Dinner, which will be held September 16th at the Marriott Marquis in New York City, recognizes exemplary corporate leadership in advancing racial diversity and equal opportunity, particularly leadership in recruiting, retaining and promoting minorities in the workplace. Receiving the 2010 Higginbotham Award will be Qualcomm, Incorporated and the company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Paul E. Jacobs. Qualcomm is widely recognized for its commitment to global inclusion. The company has been the recipient of the prestigious Secretary of Labor's Opportunity Award, the highest recognition granted by the Department of Labor that recognized Qualcomm's ongoing commitment to equal employment opportunity, including its commitment to addressing current and future employment issues, and for its corporate and social responsibility efforts.
• September 1, 2010  |  Huffington Post Credit Reports Only Where Credit is Due Congressman Luis Gutierrez discusses the use of credit checks in the employment process. Lawyers' Committee Attorney Sarah Crawford participated as a panelist in the town hall meeting mentioned in this article.
• August 30, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Attorney Participates in Chicago Town Hall on Credit Checks Lawyers' Committee Attorney Sarah Crawford participated as a panelist in a discussion on the role of credit checks in the employment process.
• August 23, 2010  |  MSNBC Background checks can offer bad history lesson An article on MSNBC.com discusses credit and background checks as a hindrance to employment and the fact that some victims are fighting back via lawsuits, an example being the Census case in which the Lawyers' Committee is co-counsel for the plaintiffs. The article also explores state and national efforts to limit the use of one or both types of checks for employment purposes.
• August 20, 2010  |  Washington Post Class-action suit accuses Census Bureau of bias in job screening In a Washington Post article, columnist Joe Davidson writes about Precious Daniels, a plaintiff in the Census case, and the alleged discriminatory impact of Census hiring practices. Ms. Daniels was disqualified from employment with Census because of an arrest for participation in a peaceful healthcare protest. Charges against her were dropped. The Lawyers' Committee is co-counsel in the lawsuit, Johnson et al. v. Locke.
• August 19, 2010  |  News-Press Southwest Florida advisers asked to help stop mortgage scams Lawyers' Committee's Alejandro Reyes highlights critical importance of the Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network and the Lawyers' Committee's database of reported scams to help put scammers out of business. "We need your help to collect this information so we can spot trends," Reyes said.
• August 17, 2010  |  Radio One Indianapolis Employment Discrimination Project Director Audrey Wiggins Highlighted Access Campaign and Discussed Class Action Lawsuit Fighting Use of Background Checks By U.S. Census with Amos Brown Audrey Wiggins updated listeners on the class action lawsuit charging that the 2010 Census’ background check procedures discriminated against Black and other minority applicants for Census jobs. Recently, evidence was presented that the EEOC told the Census that their procedures violated the law. Wiggins also told listeners about the continuing problems of background and credit checks unfairly keeping those arrested and convicted of crimes years ago from gaining employment.
• August 9, 2010  |  New York Times A Welfare Check and a Voting Card Increased voter registration in Ohio and Missouri is a result of Lawyers’ Committee Litigation.
• August 6, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine Applauds Prop 8 Ruling “Judge Walker’s ruling serves as a beacon of light in ensuring equal justice under the law for all Americans. Since our founding, the Lawyers’ Committee has worked extensively to safeguard the human and civil rights of everyone. The LGBT community should not be treated as second class citizens as Proposition 8 attempted to do. The court’s decision to overturn Proposition 8 is a tremendous victory.”
• August 4, 2010  |  Washington Post Trying to work with, not against, President Obama on education Ruth Marcus has misunderstood the position of the civil rights groups that are helping to shape education reform ["Picking the wrong fight with Obama," op-ed, July 30]. We face an unprecedented crisis in education that requires bold measures designed to achieve broad structural changes. Our framework document does not argue in favor of the status quo. Indeed, it offers constructive criticism and a thoughtful analysis of the administration's Blueprint for Reform, along with recommendations on issues ranging from school finance and teacher preparation to parental involvement and school discipline.
• August 3, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Continues to Seek Equity in Pigford Settlement and Native American Cobell Land Trust case In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Lawyers’ Committee expressed fervent support for his bill offered to provide funding for the Pigford settlement along with the Native American Cobell Land Trust case. The Lawyers’ Committee has played an active role in seeking redress for African American farmers discriminated against by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for years. In an effort to achieve equity for the farmers, the Lawyers’ Committee objected to the original payment procedure in the Pigford case as inadequate and deficient, noting that potentially thousands of eligible Black farmers would be erroneously excluded from payment. Since that time, the Lawyers’ Committee has insisted that the USDA comply with the court-ordered settlement and extend benefits to those excluded.
• July 30, 2010 Vigorous Dialogue Around Education Framework Continues The Lawyers' Committee, in collaboration with other national civil rights and education advocacy organizations, has released a Framework for Providing All Students an Opportunity to Learn through Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
• July 29, 2010  |  American Urban Radio Networks Executive Director Barbara Arnwine Discusses Education Reform
• July 28, 2010  |  American Urban Radio Networks Executive Director Barbara Arnwine Discusses Education Reform & "Race to the Top" Ms. Arnwine discusses absent civil rights standards in "Race to the Top" and disagreement with competetive process.
• July 28, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Pleased with Passage of Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law applauds the historic passage of The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 in the House on July 29th. With President Obama’s signature pending, this serves as a substantial step in addressing the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. The Act will reduce the sentencing disparity ratio from 100:1 to 18:1. While not an optimal result, the reduction in the unacceptable ratio, which lasted over two decades, should not go unnoted.
• July 28, 2010 Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Applauds District Court Ruling on Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070
• July 13, 2010  |  Black America Web News Lawyers' Committee's Audrey Wiggins Quoted in 'More Employers Running Credit Checks on Applicants' The Lawyers' Committee's Audrey Wiggins was quoted in an article dealing with the impact of background and credit checks on the employment prospects of minorities.
• July 1, 2010  |  Michael Eric Dyson Radio Show Executive Director Barbara Arnwine Reflects Upon Kagan Hearings Barbara Arnwine, executive director, sat in on Kagan hearings and joined Dr. Dyson's show to share her reflections from the Senate hearing room.
• July 1, 2010 Lawyers’ Committee Settles NVRA Suit Against New Mexico Motor Vehicle Agency The Lawyers' Committee settled its lawsuit against New Mexico for its failure to offer voter registration at the state's motor vehicle offices in violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
• June 27, 2010  |  Washington Post Civil Rights Organizations Question Nominee Elena Kagan's Record on Race "This is a complicated nomination," said Barbara R. Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which decided last week not to take a position yet on Kagan. "There isn't a judicial record to review, indicating her views on critical civil rights matters," Arnwine said. "And otherwise, the civil rights record that exists is thin and mixed."
• June 22, 2010  |  EPA EPA Supports Superfund "Polluter Pays" Provision The Lawyers' Committee is pleased by the EPA's June 21st announcement supporting the reinstatement of the Superfund Tax.
• June 16, 2010 Competing Redistricting Amendments In Florida Florida voters face competing redistricting amendments this year.
• June 16, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Files Brief Supporting Challenge to Block Discriminatory Arizona Immigration Law The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and co-counsel Perkins Coie Brown & Bain P.A., today filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction in Friendly House, et al. v. Michael B. Whiting, et al., No. 10-cv-01061, (D. Ariz.), a challenge to Arizona's recently enacted law, SB 1070. SB 1070 requires state and local law enforcement officials to check an individual's immigration status if they have a reasonable suspicion that the individual is not in the country legally.
• June 15, 2010 New York Senate Passes Anti-Deceptive Practices Bill On June 15, 2010 the New York State Senate passed S2554B, “The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act,” by a vote of 33-28. The Lawyers’ Committee’s New York Election Protection leadership played an important role in the bill’s passage, working with the Senate on the legislation, testifying in front of the committee last year, and sending a letter of support on the eve of the vote.
• June 10, 2010  |  EPA EPA and States Complete First Phase of Unprecedented School Air Monitoring Initiative In a June 10 press release, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the completion of the first phase of a new initiative to test air quality in schools. The Lawyers' Committee highlighted the importance of access to healthy schools, particularly for students from low-income communities and communities of color, in its newly released environmental justice report, "Now Is the Time."
• June 9, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Releases Environmental Justice Report As the nation continues to grapple with the recent disastrous Gulf Coast oil well leak, the largest environmental disaster in the history of the U.S., the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, in collaboration with numerous environmental justice advocates, is preparing to officially release its report, "Now is the Time: Environmental Injustice in the U.S. and Recommendations for Eliminating Disparities."
• June 4, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Legal Director Addresses Electoral and Campaign Finance Reform During Recent Panel Discussion, "How Broken is Our Democracy? And How Should We Fix It?" Lawyers' Committee Legal Director Jon Greenbaum joined other leading experts and advocates during a June 1st conference co-sponsored by Demos, AmericaSpeaks, Everyday Democracy, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School and the Brookings Institution to discuss electoral and campaign finance reform.
• May 25, 2010 U.S. Supreme Court Rules that Employers Can be Held Liable for Each Use of Results of a Discriminatory Test On May 24, 2010, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Lewis v. City of Chicago, ruling that employers can be held liable each time they use the results of a discriminatory test.
• May 24, 2010 South Carolina House Passes Voter ID Bill On May 5, 2010, despite strenuous objections of Democratic members, Republican Representatives of South Carolina’s General Assembly pushed a bill through the House that would require voters to present a photo-ID prior to voting.
• May 19, 2010  |  theGiro Are bad background checks keeping blacks out of work? Legislation Introduced to Address Inaccuracies in FBI Database and Criminal Information Released to Employers.
• May 14, 2010 Daria Neal Discusses Upcoming Environmental Justice Report Lawyers' Committee Environmental Justice Project Senior Counsel Daria Neal presented during Howard University's "The State of Environmental Justice in America" Conference on May 13, 2010.
• May 3, 2010 Arizona SB 1070: The Most Severe Immigration Law in the Nation. Late last month Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070 into law. As originally passed, the bill authorized Arizona law enforcement to stop and question anyone reasonably suspected of lacking lawful immigration status. Individuals could have been questioned even if they were not suspected of breaking a state or local law or ordinance. The bill signed into law on April 23, 2010 essentially legalized racial profiling; under the original SB 1070 police would have had little choice but to target individuals based solely on their skin color.
• May 3, 2010 Lawyer's Committee Letter of Opposition to Missouri's HJR 64 and HB 1966 On May 3, 2010, the Lawyers' Committee sent a letter of opposition to the Missouri State Senate regarding House Joint Resolution 64 and House Bill 1966. The opposition letter argued that both peices of legislation would create an "unprecedented regime of disenfranchisement that falls disproportionately on seniors, minority voters, low income voters, students and young voters, and voters with disabilities."
• April 30, 2010  |  New York Times What Would You Do? This editorial comments in support of the Power Act, recently introduced in the US Senate due to the work of the Lawyers’ Committee, the New Orleans Workers Justice Center and the National Immigration Law Center. The editorial states the background of the Act as follows: “Many American workers know how a bad economy can chain them to a bad job or a bad boss. But what if you’re an immigrant guest worker and that boss holds your visa and can get rid of you with one phone call to the feds? What if he just threatened to call? Which would you choose — to be exploited or deported? To suffer silently here or in destitution back home?” The editorial goes on to describe the Act as follows: “A new bill from Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat of New Jersey, and co-sponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat of New York, seeks to give these workers a chance to speak out. It offers temporary protection against deportation and retaliation for noncitizen workers — both visa holders and the undocumented — who file civil-rights or labor-rights complaints or are witnesses in lawsuits or criminal investigations against employers.” The editorial concludes, “When one group of workers is powerless, all workers suffer. Mr. Menendez’s bill is essential civil-rights legislation that is long overdue and just in time.” Public Policy Director Tanya Clay House was instrumental in working with Sen. Menendez’s office to shepherd this legislation to fruition.
• April 29, 2010  |  Huffington Post Dr. Dorothy Height Told Us That It's Not a Man's Civil Rights World "And let's not forget about the women that Dr. Height personally mentored or inspired including former Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, Barbara Arnwine, Elaine Jones, Melanie Campbell, Julienne Malveaux and countless women who are rising stars in advocacy and academia. If you don't have their names in your contact information, or know who they are, you should."
• April 29, 2010  |  Afro-American Newspapers Suit Against State Progresses The Lawyers' Committees' lawsuit against the Maryland Higher Education Commission was the topic of an article in Afro-Amreican Newspapers on April 29th. The piece discusses progress made in the case and the Lawyers' Committee's goal of "complete parity between Traditionally White and Black institutions" in Maryland's Higher Education System.
• April 28, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Comment Letter to DOJ On April 27, 2010, the Lawyers’ Committee sent a comment letter to the U.S. Justice Department objecting to changes the State of South Carolina is seeking to impose on the Fairfield County, South Carolina school district. The district is governed by a seven-member elected board, of whom six are African-American; however, under legislation enacted by the state two additional members would be appointed by the all-white local legislative delegation and the board’s budgetary authority would be transferred to a finance committee also appointed by the delegation. The changes are being reviewed by the Justice Department pursuant to its preclearance authority under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
• April 27, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Continues to Play a Key Role in Supreme Court Nomination Process Political cartoonist Chan Lowe generously granted us permission to publish on our Web site one of his recent works which originally appeared in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on April 6th. In the great tradition of political satire, he humorously makes a very important point: the imminent nomination by President Barack Obama of a replacement to the Supreme Court for retiring Justice John Paul Stevens will set off a political firestorm. In these highly partisan times, this is inevitable. The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has a key role to play in this critical debate. We will examine the civil rights record of the nominee and issue a substantive report that is fair and accurate and that will help to counterbalance inaccurate and misleading political rhetoric that, sadly, will be issued from many sources.
• April 26, 2010 Articles about the Census Hiring Discrimination Lawsuit Read what the media is saying about the Census Hiring Discrimination Lawsuit.
• April 26, 2010 Dukes v. Wal-Mart: Ninth Circuit Permits Historic Class Action Discrimination Case to Proceed against Wal-Mart The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, ruled 6-5 that approximately 500,000 current female employees of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may proceed as a nationwide class action with their sex discrimination in pay and promotion claims under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
• April 26, 2010 Information about the Census Hiring Discrimination Lawsuit Follow the Census Hiring Discrimination Lawsuit on Facebook and Twitter, learn more, and tell us your story by accessing these links!
• April 20, 2010  |  New York Times We Can't Tell You Why Notes “A new class-action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of applicants who say they were unfairly turned down for census jobs based on an opaque screening policy that relies on F.B.I. checks for any criminal histories. Those checks are notoriously unreliable. A 2006 federal report found that half of them were inaccurate or out of date.” Making a broader policy point, the editorial concludes: “States and cities are wisely revising employment policies. The federal government needs to develop a fair and transparent screening system for job applicants and a more effective appeals process. Congress must also require the F.B.I. to verify the criminal records — and find missing data before issuing background checks.” Congratulations to Board member Adam Klein whose firm, Outten & Golden, is co-counsel on this case and to Audrey Wiggins and Sarah Crawford of the Lawyers' Committee's Employment Discrimination Project.
• April 18, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Leads Coalition's Coordination of Report to UN's Universal Periodic Review (Racial Discrimination and Civil Rights) The coalition of stakeholders submitting this report is calling for the full recognition and fulfillment of the United States’ obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (“ICERD”) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”), particularly in areas of racial discrimination, voting rights, housing and community development, education, employment, environmental justice and healthcare. The coordinating organization, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, is a nonprofit civil rights organization established in 1963.
• April 16, 2010  |  Washington Informer Nation Mourns Death of Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks Executive Director Barbara Arnwine Quoted: "I am tremendously grateful for his unyielding commitment to social justice and his courage. For example, in a White House meeting with President George H.W. Bush he personally admonished the Administration’s lack of attention to inner city poverty and lack of support for public education. His active engagement on a wealth of issues critical to justice and equality for all will certainly be cherished."
• April 15, 2010  |  Examiner.com Lawyers' Committee Instrumental in Announcement of POWER Act Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine and Public Policy Director Tanya Clay House joined Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. during an April14th Capitol Hill press conference to announce legislation that would strengthen worker and immigrant rights, the POWER Act (Protect Our Workers from Exploitation and Retaliation).
• April 14, 2010  |  Washington Post Applicants with criminal records challenge census job-screening practices
• April 14, 2010  |  Ebony/JET Discrimination Lawsuit Filed Against Census Bureau
• April 14, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Challenges Voter Eligibility Standards in Virginia On April 13, 2010, the Voting Rights Project sent a letter to Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli II concerning recent reports that the Governor of Virginia is imposing new requirements for nonviolent ex-felons who seek restoration of their civil rights, including their voting rights. The letter reminded Attorney General Cuccinelli that changes to voter eligibility standards in Virginia must receive preclearance under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act before they can lawfully be implemented.
• April 8, 2010 Accenture Sued for Discrimination Over Background Checks, According to Worker's Legal Team
• April 8, 2010 Lawyers' Committee Lauds Arrival of EEOC Appointees The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law welcomes yesterday's arrival of Jacqueline Berrien as chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Chai Feldblum as a commissioner for the agency.
• March 29, 2010  |  The Huffington Post & New Deal 2.0 Breaking the Glass Ceiling To commemorate Women's History Month, the Roosevelt Institute's New Deal 2.0 blog asked Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine to reflect on past accomplishments and explore today's key challenges as part of its ongoing 'Feminomics' series. Here's her take on economic injustice and women of color.
• March 23, 2010 Lawyers’ Committee Applauds Historic Enactment of Health Care Reform
• March 17, 2010 Lawyers' Committee's Barbara Arnwine's CBC Testimony Addresses Racial Injustice and Economic Opportunity of Minorities and Unemployment Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Executive Director Barbara Arnwine released testimony on the occasion of the Congressional Black Caucus’ “Out of Work But Not Out of Hope: Addressing the Crisis of the Chronically Unemployed”
• March 10, 2010 Lawyers' Committee's Barbara Arnwine to Testify Before House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties On "Protecting the American Dream: A Look at the Fair Housing Act"
• March 5, 2010  |  BlackAmericaWeb.com Coalition Aims to Protect Homeowners from Scams Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine and Fair Housing and Fair Lending Senior Councel Yolanda McGill discuss newly-launched PreventLoanScams.org and provide information and insight to protect homeowners from loan modification scams.
• February 10, 2010 Haiti Need Us for the Long Haul After the catastrophic earthquake of January 12 which took untold lives and devastated their nation, the people of Haiti must once again face down tragedy and rebuild their nation. We, along with many nations in the world, have responded with magnificent generosity. Millions have internalized the words of President Obama and responded that our “common humanity” compels us to do what we can to help the Haitian people.
• February 10, 2010  |  American Bar Association’s Judges’ Journal What Was Key to Becoming a Judge? A Survey of Minorities and Women on the Bench
• February 5, 2010  |  Prince George's Suite Magazine Honoring King: WHUR Hosts 3rd Annual Town Hall Meeting “Dr. King has a saying, ‘It doesn’t matter what you do, we all can be a helping hand,’” said Barbara Arnwine, executive director for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
• February 4, 2010  |  New York Times A Bitter Guest Worker Story The Lawyers’ Committee has been assisting the New Orleans Worker Center and many of the guest workers in exposing this story in the media and in Congress.
• February 1, 2010  |  New York Times Suit Points to Guest Worker Program Flaws The Lawyers’ Committee has been assisting the New Orleans Worker Center and many of the guest workers in exposing this story in the media and in Congress.
• January 21, 2010  |  New York Law Journal Accolades-Attorneys Honored for Service Lawyers' Committee 2009 Annual Awards Recipients
• January 18, 2010  |  New York Times Denied a Chance for Honest Work Access Campaign Applauds New York's Attorney General's Efforts to Address Discrimination against Former Offenders
• December 17, 2009 Lawyers' Committee's Daria Neal Reports from Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen Daria Neal, senior counsel, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law's Environmental Justice Project, is on the ground in Copenhagen during the United Nation's Climate Change Summit. Daily blogs outlining her experiences will be posted here.
• December 16, 2009 Lawyers' Committee Submits Statement to Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law Applauds subcommittee for holding hearing and states that concluding observations issued by the monitoring bodies of both International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) offer avenues through which we can continue our path to building a society where all are truly equal and discrimination is a relic of our past.
• December 15, 2009 Settlement Agreement Reached in Harkless v. Brunner The Lawyers' Committee and its co-counsel reached a settlement agreement on November 25 in a major lawsuit, Harkless v. Brunner, brought under Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act against the Ohio Secretary of State and the Director of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services ("DJFS"). The plaintiffs in the case were Lorain resident Carrie Harkless, Cleveland resident Tameca Mardis, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
• December 11, 2009 Moving Voter Registration Toward a Digital Democracy Yesterday, the Lawyers' Committee submitted a response to an open public notice from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) titled "Moving Toward a Digital Democracy." Based on our experience as the leader of the Election Protection coalition, the largest non-partisan voter protection effort in the country, the Lawyers' Committee focused on the pressing need to upgrade and modernize the process of voter registration nationwide.
• December 3, 2009 Lawyers' Committee's Joe Rich Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee on DOJ's Civil Rights Division A former Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division attorney for nearly 37 Years, Joe Rich testified on December 3, 2009 regarding the Government Accountability Office's report auditing the activities of the division from 2001 to 2007 which was released by Congress December 3, 2009.
• December 2, 2009  |  New York Times Report Examines Civil Rights During Bush Years
• November 30, 2009 Federal Court Lawsuit Settlement Brings Ohio Into Compliance with National Voter Registration Act-Hundreds of Thousands of Low-Income Ohioans to Benefit Low-income Ohio citizens will be ensured access to voter registration at Ohio public assistance offices as a result of a settlement agreement submitted to Federal District Court Judge Patricia A. Gaughan over this past holiday weekend.
• November 23, 2009  |  Washington Post 12-year prison term in mortgage swindle On Tuesday, November 17, Maria Glod of the Washington Post reported that U.S. District Court Judge Roger W. Titus of the District of Maryland had sentenced the perpetrator of an elaborate foreclosure rescue scam to over twelve years in prison in a case brought by the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s office. The court found that Joy Jackson, President of Lanham, Maryland’s Metropolitan Money Store, had defrauded hundreds of homeowners of tens of millions of dollars of equity.
• November 19, 2009  |  Columbus Dispatch Mortgage-modification alert: Scammers prey on at-risk homeowners Lawyers' Committee's Eric Marshall comments on the importance of reporting loan-modification scammers.
• November 19, 2009 Ohio House Passes Election Reform Bill In an article today, The Columbus Dispatch reports on the Ohio House passing a bill that would change ”virtually all aspects of the voting process.”
• November 13, 2009 Lawyers' Committee and Sentencing Project Submits Report to United Nation’s Human Rights Council Forum on Minority Issues The Report, Submitted on the Occasion of the U.N.'s Human Rights Council, 2nd Session, in Geneva November 12 – 13, 2009, Examines The Discriminatory Effects of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws, Policies and Practices on Minority Civic Participation in the United States
• November 6, 2009 Lawyers' Committee to Recognize Distinquished Honorees During Annual Awards Reception This reception is made possible through the generosity of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
• November 5, 2009  |  KPHO (Phoenix) Loan Modification Scams On The Rise-New Web Site Launched To Help Homeowners Lawyers' Committee partners with network to provide resources for at-risk homeowners to recognize scams, report them and find legitimate help. Joe Rich, director, Fair Housing and Fair Lending Project, comments on the importance of spreading the word about loan modification scams and free help available to homeowners.
• October 16, 2009 Voting Rights Groups Set Record Straight on Lawsuit Targeted by State Republican Party
• October 8, 2009  |  NPR-"Tell Me More" Hair Styling Both Personal And Professional For Women Of Color Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine weighs in on discriminatory employment issues associated with hairstyles.
• October 7, 2009 Former Lawyers' Committee Employment Discrimination Expert Testifies Before Senate Judiciary on Workplace Fairness Testimony of Professor Michael Foreman, Director, Civil Rights Appellate Clinic, Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State University
• October 7, 2009  |  New York Daily News Swine Flu's Bigger Impact on Blacks and Hispanics is Not Being Addressed In furtherance of the Lawyers' Committee's commitment to ensure that communities of color have equal access to information, programs and agencies that may benefit them, we offer links to information on the H1N1 virus or the swine flu.
• October 6, 2009 Lawyers’ Committee Applauds Confirmation of Thomas E. Perez to Civil Rights Division
• September 30, 2009  |  National Law Journal & Legal Times Civil Rights Groups Seek International Help on Felony Voting Lawyers' Committee's Marcia Johnson-Blanco discusses needed attention to the issue of felony disenfranchisement and to put a human rights framework on the issue.
• September 29, 2009 Lawyers' Committee Actively Participated in Congressional Black Caucus' Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference
• September 25, 2009  |  Washington Post Justice Dept. to Address Backlog of Civil Rights Complaints Lawyers' Committee's Joe Rich, former DOJ Civil Rights Division attorney, comments on challenges of addressing civil rights complaints.
• September 24, 2009 "Importance of the Civil Rights Community in Getting Bills Passed"-Speech of Barbara Arnwine, Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference, Judiciary Issue Forum Hosted by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, September 24, 2009
• September 22, 2009  |  Baltimore Sun 2 Shore workshops on ‘heirs’ property’ In a September 22 article, Andrea Siegel of the Baltimore Sun reported on two workshops for owners of heirs’ property that the Lawyers’ Committee has planned for September 25 and 26. The workshops are the result of a collaborative effort on the part of the Lawyers’ Committee, DLA Piper, the African American Land Trust, and the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy and are being made possible by a generous grant from PNC.
• September 21, 2009  |  The New York Times Mississippi's Failure In a September 21 editorial, the New York Times highlighted the state of Mississippi's failure to adequately address the affordable housing needs of low- and moderate-income residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina through the use of $5.5 billion in federal recovery funds.
• September 17, 2009 Indiana Court of Appeals Strikes Down Burdensome Voter Identification Law The Court of Appeals of Indiana unanimously decided in League of Women Voters v. Rokita that Indiana's government-issued photo identification requirement for most in-person voters violates the Indiana Constitution's Equal Privileges and Immunities Clause.
• September 17, 2009  |  WTOC (CBS, Savannah) Is Jeffers Road legally a private road? The issue with water and sewer services to African-American neighborhoods has been resolved, but the question still remains, who will have access to Jeffers Road? Client, Della Steele, is featured.
• September 17, 2009  |  The American Prospect Why Can't Tom Perez Get Confirmed? Lawyers' Committee's Joe Rich and Jon Greenbaum comment on confirmation hold up of Tom Perez as head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.
• September 16, 2009  |  WTOC (CBS, Savannah) Lawsuit Against Port Wentworth Finally Over After years of litigation and relying upon wells and septic tanks, African Americans in Port Wentworth, GA will receive municipal water and sewer services. Client, Della Steele, is featured.
• September 16, 2009  |  FOX5 DC White House: Obama Criticism Not Racist Executive Director Barbara Arnwine appeared on FOX5 (DC) to discuss the ongoing conversations of racism in the Age of Obama following Rep. Joe Wilson’s recent outburst and former President Jimmy Carter’s assertion that Wilson’s comments were based on racism.
• September 15, 2009 Executive Director Barbara Arnwine Honored as a Washington D.C. Freedom's Sister
• September 14, 2009  |  TheRoot.com Holding Fast to Justice Lawyers' Committee's Jon Greenbaum and Joe Rich comment on change expected to come to DOJ's civil rights division.
• September 14, 2009  |  Baltimore Sun Morgan Attacks Planned Online Ph.D. Program This most recent attempt by the University of Maryland system to duplicate a program that already exists at Morgan State, an HBCU, is consistent with our plaintiffs' claims in Coalition for Equity and Excellence v. MHEC.
• September 9, 2009 Lawyers' Committee Partners with ACLU and Sentencing Project to File Felony Disenfranchisement Petition
• September 8, 2009 Lawyers' Committee Disappointed by Resignation of Van Jones and Negative Impact of Smear and Fear Rhetoric on American Democracy The Lawyers’ Committee is disappointed by the resignation of Van Jones and negative impact of smear and fear rhetoric on American democracy. The Lawyers’ Committee’s Environmental Justice Project, headed by Daria Neal, has worked diligently to protect the environment of America’s most vulnerable populations and ensure equal opportunity to live and be educated in safe, clean communities.
• September 8, 2009 Lawyers’ Committee Urges Federal Court to Enjoin Implementation of Georgia’s Discriminatory Registration Program On Friday, September 4, 2009, the Lawyers' Committee (along with its coalition partners) urged a federal court in Georgia to issue an injunction preventing the state of Georgia from implementing its discriminatory citizenship verification program for voter registration.
• September 8, 2009  |  ABA Perspectives Magazine Progress Toward Change: Civil Rights Priorities for the Obama Administration
• September 3, 2009  |  Chicago Now Hate crime unnerves Chicago family who won lawsuit The Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law celebrates victory on behalf of a Puerto Rican family whose neighbor made threats of violence and spat racial slurs at them. The $520,000 jury award to the Puerto Rican family is one of the highest awarded under the Illinois Hate Crimes statute.
• September 3, 2009  |  New York Times Judges’ Frustration Grows With Mortgage Servicers Bobbie Giguere’s unfortunate situation illustrates the importance of the bankruptcy court as source of authority for residential mortgage loan modifications. Giving bankruptcy judges the power to modify residential mortgage loans would provide a tremendous incentive for banks to clean up their loan mod pipelines and give timely and complete attention to borrowers who are seeking the help.
• September 3, 2009  |  Diverse Issues in Higher Education Legal Battles Continue in Fight for Equity in Maryland Higher Education
• September 3, 2009  |  Reuters Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Attorney General Eric Holder at the Hispanic National Bar Association Annual Conference The Lawyers’ Committee is delighted to hear the Honorable Eric Holder Jr.’s remarks at the Hispanic National Bar Association’s (HNBA) conference. His affirmation that the Civil Rights Division is “once again open for business” gives us renewed hope in the quest to champion the fundamental rights of all Americans.
• September 2, 2009  |  The Daily Beast Civil Wrongs Lawyers' Committee's Joe Rich and Jon Greenbaum discuss needed changes in DOJ's Civil Rights Division.
• September 2, 2009 Reviving Civil Rights Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine has testified about the undermining of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice for many years. We are pleased to see the New York Times paying much-needed attention to the steps that the Department is taking to rebuild its tradition of strong civil rights enforcement.
• September 1, 2009 Lawyers' Committee Releases Report on Judicial Diversity The Lawyers' Committee is pleased to present Improving Diversity on the State Courts: A Report from the Bench. This report was predicated on the premise that diversity is essential to helping our judiciary deliver equal justice.
• August 31, 2009 St. Bernard Parish Needs to Stop Defiance on Fair Housing At a St. Bernard Parish Planning Commission hearing on August 25, local officials continued to deny approval of four proposed mixed-income apartment buildings despite multiple rulings by Judge Ginger Berrigan that decreed that by blocking the development the parish has violated the federal Fair Housing Act and the terms of a February 2008 consent decree in the case of Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center v. St. Bernard Parish.
• August 31, 2009 Voter Registration Modernization is Gaining Momentum! A bipartisan group of officials, including former Senators Thomas A. Daschle and John C. Danforth, as well as Trevor Potter, former general counsel for John McCain's presidential campaign and Mark Elias, lead lawyer for Al Franken's 2008 recount, have come together in support of modernizing our antiquated voter registration system. The Lawyers' Committee applauds the Committee to Modernize Voter Registration's support of this critical reform.
• August 30, 2009  |  WBUR (NPR Boston) Teddy Joins His Brothers In Rest Executive Director Barbara Arnwine was onsite as Senator Ted Kennedy's motorcade traveled to the steps of the U.S. Capitol and is quoted in this article referencing her work with Kennedy on civil rights issues.
• August 29, 2009 Lawyers’ Committee Urges DOJ to Reject Georgia’s Discriminatory Registration Program On Friday, August 29, 2009, the Lawyers' Committee (along with its coalition partners) urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) to continue to block the efforts of the Georgia Secretary of State to implement a discriminatory voter registration verification program that threatens to disenfranchise numerous persons eligible to vote in Georgia.
• August 28, 2009 Lawyers’ Committee Fights for Student’s Voting Rights in Virginia The Lawyers’ Committee has been an active member of the Virginia State Board of Elections Task Force on Residency, fighting to ensure students across the Commonwealth will not be prevented from registering to vote where they go to school. During last year’s historic elections, ambiguity in Virginia’s residency requirements made it difficult for students to register to vote in several jurisdictions across the state.
• August 26, 2009  |  Black Star News Kennedy Tributes from Wide Spectrum Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Barbara Arwnwine honors legacy of Senator Ted Kennedy, a longtime friend and supporter of the organization started at the request of his brother, President John F. Kennedy in 1963 to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination.
• August 26, 2009  |  Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program Newsletter Lawyers' Committee Brings Family Mediation Services to Owners of Heirs' Property This spring the Lawyers’ Committee recruited the Harvard Negotiation & Clinical Program to work with an heirs’ property family. The professors who operate the Program were extremely happy with the project we developed for the students, and the family was pleased with the outcome. Prior to the students’ arrival, the family members were having trouble making decisions on how to proceed. One of the local attorneys working to help this family estimates that the students made it possible to accomplish in a few months what would otherwise have taken a year or more. The family has now deeded property interests to two of the three properties they own into a limited liability company. The Lawyers’ Committee has recruited the firm of Dykema to assist this family with next steps, including the development of an appropriate operating agreement for the LLC.
• August 20, 2009 PNC Grants Community Development Project $30,000 The Lawyers' Committee thanks PNC for its generous grant of $30,000 to expand our Heirs' Property Initiative to Maryland's Eastern Shore.
• August 17, 2009 Advocating for Election Reform in Pittsburgh Voting Rights Project Campaign Manager, Eric Marshall, moderated a panel on modernizing our nation’s antiquated voter registration system at the 2009 Netroots Nation convention in Pittsburgh, PA on Saturday, August 15, 2009. In its fourth year, Netroots Nation is a national gathering of progressive leaders and activists that “inspire[s] action and serve as an incubator for ideas that challenge the status quo and ultimately affect change in the public sphere.”
• August 17, 2009 Lawyers' Committee Congratulates Justice Sotomayor The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law congratulates Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor. Executive Director Barbara R. Arnwine joined President Obama and many others at a White House reception in her honor on August 12, 2009.
• August 13, 2009 Lawyers' Committee Applauds Landmark Fair Housing Settlement The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law applauds the landmark settlement announced on August 10th by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the case of United States ex rel. Anti Discrimination Center of Metro New York v. County of Westchester.
• August 9, 2009 Congresswoman Maxine Waters Receives Distinguished Civil Rights Advocate Award Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) received the Distinguished Civil Rights Advocate Award from the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law at the National Bar Association's 84th Annual Convention in San Diego, California.
• August 6, 2009 Confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor Strengthens the Supreme Court The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law applauds the United States Senate's confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. On July 9th, the Lawyers' Committee issued a Statement of Support and a comprehensive Report that detailed her lengthy and exemplary record on civil rights. The Statement of Support which accompanied the Report was signed by more than 125 prominent attorneys from across the country serving on the Board of the Lawyers' Committee.
• July 27, 2009  |  Congressional Quarterly Race Gap: Still Hard At Work Executive Director Barbara Arnwine was quoted in the July 27th issue of Congressional Quarterly regarding the need for concentrated policy reforms to address growing disparities in jobless rates between whites and minorities.
• July 22, 2009 Legal Action Taken Against Loan Modification Firms Peter Goodman reports in the New York Times that the Federal Trade Commission has brought legal action against five loan modification firms, several of which were formerly operating as mortgage brokers.
• July 17, 2009 Earnings and Living Opportunities Act On July 17, 2009, Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine sent a letter to Representative Nydia Velasquez in support of the Earning and Living Opportunities Act, which would reform Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968.
• July 10, 2009 Executive Director Criticizes Sessions’ PRLDEF Comments In a letter delivered this afternoon, Lawyers’ Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine expressed her concern about comments made by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions regarding the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), now LatinoJustice PRLDEF.
• July 9, 2009 Lawyers' Committee and Partners File 2 Major Voter Registration Lawsuits Citing clear evidence that hundreds of thousands of low-income Indiana and New Mexico residents have illegally been denied the opportunity to register to vote, the Lawyers' Committee and its partners filed lawsuits on Thursday, July 9, 2008 against officials in both states for violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
• July 3, 2009 Lawyers' Committee's Sarah Crawford Quoted on Ricci Decision Calling the decision a "real head scratcher," the Lawyers' Committee's own Sarah Crawford explained that the Supreme Court's decision in Ricci "essentially ties employers' hands."
• July 2, 2009 Lawyers' Committee's Sarah Crawford Provides Expert Analysis on Ricci Employment Discrimination Project's senior counsel, Sarah Crawford, penned a thorough analysis of Ricci v. DeStefano for the American Constitution Society's blog.
• July 2, 2009 NOTICE: Fairness Hearing Scheduled for Smithtown Settlement On August 28, 2009, a fairness hearing will be held for potential class members in the case of Vargas v. Smithtown to have the opportunity to express their thoughts and ask any questions regarding the fairness of the proposed settlement. Individuals who would like to appear at the hearing must send by first-class mail certain information in writing postmarked by August 14, 2009.
• June 29, 2009  |  Legal Times More Reaction to Ricci Decision
• June 29, 2009  |  USA Today Supreme Court rules for white firefighters in promotions
• June 29, 2009  |  NBC White New Haven firefighters win Supreme Court case
• June 28, 2009  |  New America Media Still Invisible in The Labor Force
• June 26, 2009 Lawyers' Committee Legal Director Quoted in Kansas City Star The Lawyers' Committee's Jon Greenbaum was quoted in the Kansas City Star today discussing the settlement reached with the state over its implementation of the National Voter Registration Act, "'The lawsuit has led to a 2,000 percent increase in the number of people registering to vote at Missouri public assistance agencies,' Greenbaum said. 'We appreciate that since they've been under court order, Missouri's Department of Social Services has been a national model in showing how to implement this law.'"
• June 25, 2009 Bipartisan Support for Voter Registration Modernization The former general counsels to the Obama and McCain presidential campaigns, Bob Bauer and Trevor Potter, published a forceful op-ed in support of modernization our nation's antiquated voter registration system today in the Washington Post.
• June 25, 2009 Settlement in Missouri is a Victory for Low-Income Voters In a victory for low-income voters, the Lawyers' Committee and its partners reached a settlement with the state of Missouri that will continue a program that has already resulted in over 100,000 new voter registrations collected at public assistance agencies in just a few months.
• June 24, 2009 All subprime mortgages are not equal Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine is a "Braintruster" for New Deal 2.0 (ND2.0), a one-stop-shop for current news, fresh insight, sharp analysis of the country's fiscal crisis - and the people and policies that offer potential solutions. A new and defining project of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, ND2.0 features commentary from the country's leading thinkers: economists, historians, political scientists, policy experts and elected officials.
• June 16, 2009 Why the Voting Rights Act Matters On the eve of the Supreme Court's ruling on the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the New York Times highlighted the Lawyers' Committee's recent victory in Georgia as evidence to why the law is so vital.
• June 12, 2009  |  Houston Style Magazine Microsoft Receives Judge Leon Higginbotham Corporate Leadership Award
• June 10, 2009  |  Washington Times CITIZEN JOURNALISM: 'School-to-prison pipeline'
• June 8, 2009  |  BlackPressUSA.com Microsoft Receives Judge Leon Higginbotham Corporate Leadership Award
• June 1, 2009 DOJ Blocks Discriminatory Georgia Voter Registration Verification Program On Friday, May 29, 2009, the Department of Justice, using the authority granted under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, blocked changes Georgia made to its voter registration verification program that would have disenfranchised countless eligible voters in a letter sent to Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker.
• May 26, 2009 President Obama Makes Historic Nomination
• May 22, 2009 Lawyers' Committee Urges DOJ to Object to Discriminatory Georgia Law On May 19, the Voting Rights Project submitted a comment letter to the U.S. Department of Justice urging the Attorney General to file an objection under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to Georgia's program for verifying the citizenship and identities of certain voter registration applicants.
• May 11, 2009 Lawyers' Committee Commends HUD's Decision to Withhold Funds from Westchester County, New York
• May 11, 2009  |  U.S. News & World Report Sonia Sotomayor Could Be on Obama's Short List for Replacing Souter Executive Director Barbara Arnwine Weighs In
• May 8, 2009  |  Forbes.com (Associated Press) Miss. Plaintiffs to Fight HUD's Motion to Dismiss
• May 7, 2009  |  Diversity Inc. Are Civil Rights Still at Risk?
• May 6, 2009  |  Montgomery Advertiser Sessions Wins Judiciary Committee Post Chief Counsel John Brittain Weighs In
• May 4, 2009  |  National Journal A Bad Time To Cut Voting Rights Protections
• April 30, 2009 Lawyers' Committee Commends House for Passing Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009
• April 28, 2009  |  WSTC/WNLK Local News Hartford celebrates Desegregation Anniversary
• April 28, 2009 Sound the Alarm ... Civil Rights, Still At Risk With the historic election of Barack Obama as this nation's first African American president, we still are in a time where we must "sound the alarm" and heighten awareness of the ongoing struggle for racial justice and equality across the country as never before. The racial contradictions in our society are in many ways peaking instead of waning. Nowhere is this truer than in this term of when the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to hear nine civil rights cases, almost a record number.
• April 27, 2009  |  WTNH 20-Year Battle for 20 Magnet Schools
• April 27, 2009  |  Gannett Washington Bureau (TheNewsStar.com) High Court to Tackle Voting Law
• April 27, 2009 The 20th Anniversary of the Sheff v. O'Neill Lawsuit
• April 27, 2009  |  Host, John Dankosky The 20th Anniversary of the Sheff versus O'Neill Lawsuit
• April 26, 2009  |  Orlando Sentinel Orange Schools' Biracial-Panel Gaffe May Keep Feds' Oversight
• April 25, 2009  |  American Constitution Society High Court Set To Consider Case Challenging Voting Rights Act On Wednesday, April 29, 2009, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder. This critical case is expected to decide the constitutionality of the preclearance requirement of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The Lawyers' Committee, representing a defendant-intervenor in the case, filed a lengthy brief with the Court defending the statute's constitutionality. The following is an article that appeared on the American Constitution Society's blog, by Mark Posner, senior fellow in the Voting Rights Project, that discusses the issues presented by this case.
• April 23, 2009 High Court Hears Argument in New Haven Firefighter Case On April 22, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Ricci v. DeStefano. This important case marks the first time in decades that the Court will examine a public employer's consideration of race in hiring or promotions. Following up on an article that appeared on the American Constitution Society's blog (http://www.acsblog.org/), Sarah Crawford, Senior Counsel for the Employment Discrimination Project, reports on the argument
• April 21, 2009  |  Washington Afro American Supreme Court to Weigh Voting Rights Act Challenge
• April 3, 2009  |  American Lawyer Non-Profits: Who Pays the Costs of Hiring Deferred Associates?
• March 26, 2009  |  New Haven Independent Rights Groups Back Black Firefighters
• March 19, 2009  |  Baltimore Sun Md. labor secretary's selection riles some
• March 18, 2009  |  Los Angeles Times Conservatives invoke Obama in Voting Rights Act challenge
• March 16, 2009  |  Voice of America US Supreme Court to Rule on Important Challenges to Civil Rights Laws
• March 12, 2009  |  U.S. News & World Report Why Eric Holder Says Civil Rights is His Top Priority After the Bush Years
• March 11, 2009 Jonah Goldman Testifies Before Senate Rules Committee Director of the Lawyers' Committee's National Campaign for Fair Elections, testified before the Senate Rules Committee about the effects of our flawed voter registration system on the 2008 election.
• March 5, 2009 Audrey Wiggins on Panel Discussing the Arbitration Fairness Act
• January 21, 2009  |  Human Rights Magazine Civil Rights Recommendations for the New Adminstration
• November 4, 2008  |  New York Times Voters Find Long Lines, but No Catastrophes
• September 7, 2008  |  New York Times Voter Registration by Students Raises Cloud of Consequences
• August 8, 2008  |  New York Times The Right to Vote
• August 1, 2008  |  Reuters National Fair Housing Commission Focused on Gulf Coast Housing Crisis in the Wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
• July 21, 2008  |  CommonDreams.org Bipartisan Commision Launched to Investigate Housing Discrimination in America
• April 17, 2008  |  New York Times LETTER; Disaster Housing
• March 16, 2008  |  Voice of America US Supreme Court to Rule on Important Challenges to Civil Rights Laws