LDF News and Media Today:
New civil rights chief vows more hate-crimes enforcement
The Obama administration’s new civil rights chief said Thursday that he was “shocked” to learn of the steep decline in hate-crime prosecutions during the Bush presidency and vowed to combat violence stemming from hatred and bias.

Md. colleges deny bias in [...]

LDF News and Media Today:
D.C. to pay $8.25 million to settle mass arrest suit
The D.C. government and a nonprofit civil rights organization have settled a class-action lawsuit brought by hundreds of protesters and bystanders arrested during a downtown demonstration in 2002.

In push for gender equity, turnabout is not fair play
The U.S. [...]

LDF News and Media Today:
A sampling of Race, Justice, Equality and Democracy in the news.
Former Solicitor General Feels the Wrath of Senators
John Payton, the director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund sitting to Garre’s right, denounced the Supreme Court’s decisions.

At Senate Judiciary Committee Iqbal Rollback Hearing, Dems Go After [...]

LDF News and Media Today:
A sampling of Race, Justice, Equality and Democracy in the news.
Supreme Court Schedules Major Gun Rights Case
There are at least 30 of them — ably reposted at ChicagoGunCase.com — plus two unaffiliated ones filed by the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund and the Brady Center To Prevent Gun [...]

LDF News and Media Today:
A sampling of Race, Justice, Equality and Democracy in the news.
Congress keeps up pressure on Iqbal, Twombly

Also scheduled to testify at the Judiciary hearing are two critics of the Iqbal decision, John Payton of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Stephen Burbank of the University of Pennsylvania [...]

LDF News and Media Today:
A sampling of Race, Justice, Equality and Democracy in the news.

Right and Left Join Forces on Criminal Justice
In the next several months, the Supreme Court will decide at least a half-dozen cases about the rights of people accused of crimes involving drugs, sex and corruption. Civil liberties groups [...]

LDF News and Media Today:
A sampling of Race, Justice, Equality and Democracy in the news.

The Demise of the Death Penalty in the USA:
The Politics of Capital Punishment and the Question of Innocence

1,1821 executions have taken place in the US since the restoration of capital punishment in 1976 following a moratorium [...]

LDF News and Media Today:
A sampling of Race, Justice, Equality and Democracy in the news.
6th Circuit Court panel hears arguments in Michigan Civil Rights Initiative lawsuit
Opponents of Michigan’s 2006 Civil Rights Initiative that banned public institutions from using affirmative action had their day in court again yesterday.

Perez Plans Restoration, Revitalization of Civil [...]

LDF News and Media Today:
A sampling of Race, Justice, Equality and Democracy in the news.
Obama Backers Fear Opportunities to Reshape Judiciary Are Slipping Away
Theodore Shaw, a Columbia University law professor who until recently led the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., said liberals feared that the White House was not [...]

LDF News and Media Today:
A sampling of Race, Justice, Equality and Democracy in the news.
Two Harlem Streets Named for Civil Rights Leaders
On Saturday, two streets in Harlem were named in honor of two civil rights leaders with ties to New York City: A. Philip Randolph and W. E. B. DuBois.

Cadwalader Partner [...]