Newsroom

The race-conscious admissions policy at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC) is legal and must be upheld, Judge Loretta C. Biggs from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina ruled Monday. The following are statements from groups involved with the case.

Retired four-star general Colin L. Powell, who served as the nation’s top soldier, diplomat and national security adviser, died on Monday from complications of COVID-19. Powell was 84 at the time of his passing. Powell was a “strong proponent” of affirmative action during his lifetime.

The Illinois legislature’s S.B. 927 redistricting plan, creates unconstitutional racially gerrymandered districts for the Illinois House of Representatives, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and pro-bono counsel Cooley LLP. The challenged redistricting plan breaks up the geographically compact and politically cohesive Black community of East St. Louis.

Black migrants are criminalized and disproportionately harmed by U.S. immigration policies including asylum, enforcement, detention and deportation. October 11, 2021 commences the National Week of Action in support of Black migrants excluded from temporary and permanent protections.

After decades of the longstanding racial discrimination in administration of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) loan programs, Black farmers stand to lose their farms, land and livelihoods without an estimated $4 billion in debt relief promised through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act was introduced in the Senate on Tuesday. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act will revive the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 invalidated by the disastrous Shelby v. Holder Supreme Court decision in 2013, restoring the Department of Justice’s ability to oversee changes to voting rights.

President Joe Biden nominated law professor Alvaro Bedoya to the Federal Trade Commission. Bedoya is the founder of Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology, which focuses on privacy and surveillance law and policy, especially the impact on communities of color.

The Democracy Fund recently announced it is awarding over $1 million in grants to support the work of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Digital Justice Initiative (DJI), a project that focuses on the intersection of racial justice, technology, and privacy.

President Joe Biden announced fourteen new judicial nominees, outstanding for their distinguished and diverse backgrounds on Thursday. Including a wide range of “firsts” for federal judicial representation, the nominations speak to President Biden’s commitment to making the federal judiciary more reflective of this nation’s true diversity.

Bipartisan negotiations for a compromise on police reform broke down Wednesday, officially ending talks on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The bill emphasized de-escalation tactics, bans police techniques like chokeholds and some no-knock warrants, ended qualified immunity and enhanced the ability of the Justice Department to prosecute officers for civil rights violations.

A Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks will have a devastating impact on women with low incomes and Black women, according to an amicus brief filed in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and 16 other prominent civil rights organizations on Monday.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law announced Thursday that Lillian S. Hardy of Hogan Lovells US LLP; David Herrington of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP; Andrew LeGrand of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Ragan Naresh of Kirkland & Ellis LLP; and Shawn Naunton of Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, have been appointed to its advisory board of directors.

The Texas State Legislature’s SB 1 legislation violates provisions of the Texas Constitution that protect the right to vote, the right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to due process, and the right to equal protection under law, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by civil rights advocates against Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Kevin Paxton, Deputy Secretary of State Joe Esparza, and the future secretary of state, once that position is filled.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland called on the legal community to volunteer time and legal assistance to confront the ongoing housing and evictions crisis following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision striking down the federal eviction moratorium. The call to action follows a recent meeting hosted by the attorney general and Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta with nearly 40 State Chief Justices to discuss the national housing and eviction disparities and potential solutions.