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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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John Lewis Made America a More Perfect Union
Congressman John Lewis accepts the 2017 Robert F. Kennedy Justice Prize. (Washington, DC) – The nation awakes to the overwhelmingly sad news that Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, a champion for democracy and civil rights, has passed. The following is a statement...
Civil Rights Groups and Pennsylvania Voters Take Legal Action Against Trump Campaign’s Continued Voter Suppression Efforts
(PITTSBURGH) – The Trump administration and the Republican party are attempting to limit Pennsylvanians’ constitutionally protected right to vote by preventing the use of ballot drop-off locations a filing showed today in the U.S. District Court for Western District...
Supreme Court Takes Wait and See Approach on Blatant Voter Disenfranchisement
(Washington, D.C.) – The U.S. Supreme Court voted not to weigh in on whether Florida’s citizens must pay court fees before regaining their right to vote today. The court chose not to overturn a lower court’s decision to keep hundreds of thousands from joining the...
Facebook Engages in Online Segregation and Redlining Through Discriminatory Advertising System, Lawyers’ Committee Argues
Platform’s Algorithms Unlawfully Classify Users on the Basis of Their Race, Gender and Age, Discriminating in the Provision of Financial Services Ads (San Francisco, Calif.) – Facebook engages in unlawful online segregation and redlining, an...
Lawsuit: Proposed USDA Rule Would Disproportionately Harm Black and Latinx Communities
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed an amicus brief on Wednesday in support of the plaintiffs in District of Columbia v. U.S. Department of Agriculture and Bread for the City v. U.S. Department of Agriculture; cases that challenge the federal...
D.C. Police Officers Coordinated with Federal Law Enforcement to Tear-Gas Lafayette Square Protesters
NOTE TO REPORTERS Civil rights groups led by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed a motion today to add Washington D.C. Chief of Police, Peter Newsham, and unnamed D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers as defendants in the early-June...
Suit Challenges Indiana’s New Law Blocking Voters from Asking the Courts to Extend Voting Hours
(INDIANAPOLIS) – An Indiana state law violates the constitutional rights of its citizens because it strips voters of their right to petition state courts to extend polling place hours, a federal lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of...
Federal Court Temporarily Stops Sheriff and City of Graham’s Unconstitutional Protest Ban
In response to a lawsuit and motion for a temporary restraining order filed early Friday morning by civil rights groups, including the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a federal judge today granted a consent temporary restraining order against protest...
Civil Rights Groups Take on City of Graham’s Protest Limitations
(Raleigh, N.C.) – The city of Graham’s orders preventing groups of two or more people from protesting without police permission violates the First Amendment to the Constitution on rights to free speech and assembly, a coalition of civil rights groups led by the...
Trump Blows His Twitter Dog Whistle on America’s Fair Housing Policies in the Suburbs
(Washington, D.C.) – In a late-night tweet, President Trump signaled that his administration may end the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) program enacted under President Obama. AFFH was added to the Fair Housing Act of 1968 to fight historic patterns...
Reddit and Twitch Strike Against Hate on Their Platforms After Years of Allowing Both to Thrive
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Reddit and Twitch stood up for the civil rights of their users to enjoy their services without being subjected to hate or harassment today when they announced a new anti-hate policy and banned about 2,000 subreddits, including r/The_Donald, which...
In a 5-4 Ruling, U.S. Supreme Court Ruling Strikes Down Louisiana Anti-Abortion Law
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s anti-abortion law, Act 620, that would have required physicians who perform abortions to have active admitting privileges at a local hospital, as unconstitutional. The Court’s ruling affirms the...
Civil Rights Groups Call on Raleigh Police Department to Stop Excessive Force Tactics Ahead of Peaceful Protest
(Raleigh, N.C.) – North Carolina-based advocacy groups are concerned about possible Raleigh police violence against peaceful protesters at the Pride in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter rally this weekend, a letter sent to Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown on behalf...
U.S. House Set to Vote on Historic Police Reform Bill, Named in Honor of George Floyd
(Washington, D.C.) – Exactly one month after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote to approve the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Floyd’s arrest and death sparked a widespread movement across the...
Wilson’s Confirmation to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Threatens the Welfare of Black and Brown Communities in the Deep South
(Washington, D.C.) – The U.S. Senate voted 52-48 today to confirm Cory Wilson to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The following is a statement from Erinn D. Martin, policy counsel at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:...