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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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The Role Of The Transgender Community In The LGBT+ Rights Movement
June 28, 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, commonly referred to as the birth of the LGBT+ rights movement in the United States. At the forefront of the riots and the early movement were transgender and gender non-conforming women of color, like...
Are Pa.’s absentee-ballot deadlines unconstitutional? What would be the fix? Judges consider whether a lawsuit should move forward.
Thousands of Pennsylvanians have their votes rejected every year — in violation of their constitutional rights — because the commonwealth’s tight deadlines for absentee ballots are far more restrictive than those of other states, advocates argued Wednesday before a...
National Civil Rights Group Responds to YouTube’s Move to Ban White Supremacy and Other Violent Extremism
Washington, D.C. – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law responds to YouTube for taking a step in the right direction to address the proliferation of hateful activity on its platform. YouTube announced today that it would no longer allow videos alleging...
Voting Rights Advocates Demand that Laurens County, GA Election Officials Stop Challenging and Purging Voters from the County’s Voter Registration Rolls in Violation of Federal Law and Reinstate Unlawfully Removed Voters to the Registration List
Pre-Suit NVRA Violation Notice Letter issued by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on Behalf of Georgia Voting Rights Organizations to Laurens County Election Officials WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, voting rights advocates sent a letter formally notifying...
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Challenges Pennsylvania Absentee Voting Deadline
Philadelphia, PA - A state court heard its first arguments today in a constitutional challenge to Pennsylvania’s absentee voting deadline. The hearing before the Commonwealth Court, which convenedwas sitting in Philadelphia, centered around the defendants’ motions to...
Activists say new Tennessee law aims to suppress African American votes
Tequila Johnson lists off laundromats, nightclubs and churches. Those are the places her team of 150 volunteers visited during the midterm elections last year, registering black voters across Tennessee. In the end, she estimates The Equity Alliance, where she is...
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Celebrates Anniversary of Historic 19th Amendment Securing the Right for Women to Vote
Washington, D.C. – Today, as the United States recognizes the historic anniversary commemorating the passage of the 19th Amendment which secured the right to vote for women, Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights...
Athletes use their platform to fight for social change
Standing on the victory podium with his fist defiantly held in the air in the Black Power salute, African-American sprinter John Carlos knew his action would spark outrage around the world. But as an athlete who just won a bronze medal in track and field at the 1968...
Point of View: Oklahoma should address the trap of fees, fines
Courts cannot incarcerate people based solely on inability to pay court-imposed fines. The U.S. Constitution and Oklahoma Constitution prohibit jailing a person without first determining whether their failure to pay is willful.
Segregation now: #LivingWhileBlack experiences are the new version of ‘whites only’ signs
It is among the most mundane of routines: Arrive at a hotel. Enter the hotel. And when in Vegas, the rest is supposed to stay there. But, when the rapper Meek Mill arrived at a Las Vegas hotel Saturday for a hotel club party, the rapper says he was stopped, told he...
Voting Rights Advocates Urge Randolph County, Georgia to Drop its Revised Consideration of Polling Place Closures Ahead of the 2020 Election Cycle
Despite abandoning plans to close all but two of nine polling sites in 2018 in the wake of local and national backlash, voting rights advocates condemn the decision of Randolph County election officials to renew consideration of polling site closures in this...
McConnell vows to fill any Supreme Court vacancy in 2020, rankling Dems
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking at a luncheon on Tuesday, made clear what would happen if a Supreme Court vacancy should materialize in the midst of the 2020 election season: "Uh, we'd fill it."
McConnell says he would help Trump fill a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020 — after blocking Obama in 2016
With his party now in the White House, McConnell said Tuesday he would try to push through any nomination that President Trump might make to the high court — even if it comes during an election year. Some saw that stance, which McConnell has signaled before, as...
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Condemns Students for Fair Admissions Lawsuit against University of Texas at Austin
Washington, D.C. – In response to the lawsuit filed by Ed Blum against the University of Texas at Austin alleging that its consideration of race in admissions violates the Texas Constitution, Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee...
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Recognizes 65 Year Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Ruling
Washington, D.C. – Today, in recognition of the 65th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, issued the following statement: “65 years...