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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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Latest Court Ruling in School Funding Equity Case a Mixed Bag for North Carolina Children and Families
RALEIGH – On April 26, 2022, a North Carolina court held that the state General Assembly’s 2021 Budget Act failed to fulfill the state’s obligations to support an education funding plan designed to ensure that all schoolchildren can access a sound basic education. The...
All Women of Color Slate of Judicial Nominees Reflects President Biden’s Commitment to Strengthening the Federal Judiciary
(Washington, D.C.) - The Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings Wednesday to confirm five of President Biden’s nominees, all women of color, to the federal bench. President Biden is following through on his commitment to nominate attorneys and jurists from diverse...
Gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act Would Allow Racial Discrimination to Run Unchecked
(Washington, D.C.) - A federal appeals court should reverse a district judge’s ruling that held Black voters and other impacted community members have no right to sue under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, according to an amicus brief filed by...
Department of Justice Announces Policing Consent Decree with Springfield, Massachusetts
(Washington, DC)— The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday, that it reached a settlement with the City of Springfield, Massachusetts following an investigation into a pattern of excessive force by the Springfield Police Department’s now-disbanded...
Biden administration to change the way it deals with protesters near White House
National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said in a statement the agency is "committed to ensuring people can gather safely to express our most fundamental and cherished right to free speech. This updated policy is designed to be accessible and understandable to both...
Federal Government Agrees to Change Demonstration Policing Policies
WASHINGTON – The Biden Administration announced changes to United States Park Police and Secret Service policies related to the policing of demonstrations, to settle some of the legal claims by civil rights protesters unconstitutionally and brutally attacked outside...
Senate Confirms Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the First Black Woman to Become Supreme Court Justice
(Washington, D.C.) — The U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court of the United States on Thursday, marking the first time in the nation’s history that a Black woman was confirmed to the high court. Judge Jackson is one of the most...
Amir Locke Deserves Justice
(Washington, D.C.) – Minneapolis law enforcement officers will not face criminal charges in the death of Amir Locke, a Black man who was killed by police during the execution of a “no-knock” search warrant in February at an apartment complex. The following is a...
House of Representatives Passes MORE Act to Address Harms Caused by America’s War on Drugs
(Washington, D.C.) — The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act Friday which would decriminalize the usage of marijuana at the federal level and would begin to address the harms caused by America’s War on...
What Can Biden Do Now to Protect the Ballot? We Asked Eric Holder and Six Other Voting Rights Experts
"As Trump’s Big Lie festers among the Republican Party and political norms continue to erode, we at The New Republic are pretty concerned about the future of small “d” democracy, both in the U.S. and abroad. So we’ve started a series we’ve termed Democracy Watch,...
Arizona Passes Proof-of-Citizenship Law for Voting in Presidential Elections
"Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona has signed legislation requiring voters to prove their citizenship in order to vote in a presidential election, swiftly drawing a legal challenge from voting rights activists who argued that it could keep tens of thousands of voters from...
Judge Rules Parts of Florida Voting Law Are Unconstitutional
"A federal judge in Florida ruled on Thursday that sections of the state’s year-old election law were unconstitutional and racially motivated, and barred the state from making similar changes to its laws in the next decade without the approval of the federal...
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Presents House Testimony in Support of Abolishing Qualified Immunity
(Washington, D.C.) – Arthur Ago, Director of the Criminal Justice Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law testified before Congress today about how the judge-made doctrine of qualified immunity erodes civil rights protections for people of color....
Lawyers’ Committee Releases ‘Standing with Black Farmers’ Video Detailing Need for USDA Debt Relief
(Washington, D.C.) — The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law released a video Thursday, highlighting the decades of longstanding racial discrimination experienced by Black farmers in the administration of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA)...
President Biden Signs Emmett Till Antilynching Act into Law
(Washington, DC) – Today, President Joseph Biden signed into law the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, legislation which finally declares lynching a federal hate crime. The legislation is named in honor of Emmett Till, a young Black teenager who was kidnapped and brutally...