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In particular, the Lawyers’ Committee, a minority advocacy organization that provides legal services to help address racial discrimination, said the EEOC’s final guidance needs to include a more robust discussion on liability for harassment under a joint-employer theory for businesses that use subcontractors.

Marcia Johnson-Blanco—a panelist and the co-director of the voting rights project for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law—agreed. She said that the redistricting process, when done improperly, can interfere with the typical principles of representative democracy.

Opponents expressed concern about Gorsuch’s record on civil liberties, election laws and reproductive rights. Gorsuch’s approach “reflects a narrow view of civil rights and a deep skepticism of protecting those rights in the courtroom,” said Kristen Clarke, head of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

“Without effective attorneys, poor defendants across the state are left literally defenseless against the unchecked power of local prosecutors and police,” Mateya Kelley, the Jerry Shestack Justice Fellow with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which is acting as co-counsel on the case, told the Louisiana Record.

“So, you know, the hearing is happening inside the four walls of that Senate room, but the reality is everything that’s happening in the outside world. And, you know, there have been people who have talked about the experience of Judge Merrick Garland and the political obstruction that prevented his nomination from being heard…”

“It took years for the civil rights division to be rebuilt and for it to return to its core focus of enforcing civil rights in an objective matter,” said Kristen Clarke