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Welcome to the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Newsroom. This page contains our press releases, news clips and blog posts.
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White West Va. Officers Violently Attack Black Man
(Washington, D.C.) - Two white police officers pulled a Black West Virginian man from his home and beat him for half a minute causing serious and permanent injuries in the early morning of New Year’s Day 2019, according to a lawsuit the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil...
Victory: Census Numbers Won’t be Released Before Next Administration Arrives
(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh issued an order on Friday night in National Urban League v. Ross which will help ensure that the 2020 census adheres to the U.S. Constitution and counts every resident of the United States. Civil rights,...
Civil Rights Organizations and Diverse Group of Students of Color Permitted to Intervene in SFFA v. University of Texas at Austin
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, along with pro bono counsel Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP and Bernabei & Kabat PLLC, have received an order from a federal district court, to intervene in SFFA v. UT Austin on behalf of three organizations and a...
City of Valley Brook Unconstitutionally Jails Indigent Individuals, Creating Modern-Day Debtors’ Prisons
(Valley Brook, Okla.) — The City of Valley Brook’s practice of jailing citizens because they cannot afford to pay traffic tickets or fines for other minor offenses is a violation of their constitutional rights, a lawsuit filed last week by the Lawyers’ Committee for...
NOTE TO REPORTERS: Hawai‘i Police Union Sues to Hide Misconduct Information from the Public
The public interest in Hawai‘i is overwhelmingly served by Act 47’s provision requiring that its police departments disclose to the Legislature the names of police officers who have been suspended or discharged but whose grievance processes are not yet final, argues a...
Lumina Foundation’s Racial Justice and Equity Fund Awards $325,000 Grant to the National Lawyers’ Committee
(Washington, D.C.) - Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation awarded a $325,000 grant today to the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. A natural pairing, Lumina Foundation is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to...
Education and Civil Rights Groups Send Letter to Biden Education Transition Team, Urging Them to Protect English Learners by Postponing Proficiency Testing
(Washington, D.C.) - To ensure that students who are learning the English language are not forced into schools for the sole purpose of testing their proficiency, and that parents be provided an option in their native language, and to withdraw from testing if they do...
After Trump Incites Violent Attack on U.S. Capitol, Twitter Permanently Bans His Account
(WASHINGTON, DC) – After the unprecedent attacks on the Capitol this past Wednesday by a violent pro-Trump mob, Twitter announced today that it has permanently banned President Donald Trump from the social media platform. The following is a statement from David Brody,...
Google Responds to Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Demand to Ban App Used to Plan Attack on Capitol
(Washington, D.C.) — In November, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and partners warned Google of the risk that Parler, an app falsely touting itself as the ‘free-speech’ version of Twitter, posed. Today, in the wake of an attempted coup planned in...
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Condemns Domestic Terrorist Attack on United States Capitol
(Washington, D.C.) - Armed insurrectionists attacked and overtook the U.S. Capitol Building to forcibly challenge President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s Electoral College victory. The violence threatened the lives of the entire U.S....
National Lawyers’ Committee Board Co-Chairs Scheindlin, Sager and West on Kristen Clarke’s Nomination as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights
(Washington, D.C.) – President-elect Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Kristen Clarke (bio), the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to be the nation’s nineteenth Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights....
N.C. Court Chooses to Restrict Local Property Rights of Neighbors Besieged by Industrial Hog Waste
(Raleigh, N.C.) – Individuals suffering negative recurring health and environmental impacts from open-air cesspits containing hog waste like feces, blood, urine, bone and other animal fluids, cannot sue industrial swine operations for nuisance, after a Dec. 23, 2020...
Lawsuit Filed to Hold Proud Boys Accountable for Racist Attack on Historic Black Church in D.C.
(Washington, D.C.) – Members of the Proud Boys, a violent all-male group with ties to white nationalism, attacked and vandalized property of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historic Black church, on December 12, 2020, because of...
McConnell’s Pretend Voter Commission Will Deny Covid Relief and Disenfranchise Black Voters
(Washington, D.C.) - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced legislation on Tuesday connecting vital $2,000 stimulus checks for Americans to the creation of a commission to study imagined election illegalities, a move likely designed to derail direct...
Joint Statement: Election Protection Coalition and Election 2020
(Washington, D.C.) – Members of the Voting Rights Working Group issue the following statement about its election protection litigation for the 2020 elections: “Latino, Black, Asian American, and Native American voters played a decisive role in last month’s...