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Supreme Court Will Decide Fairness of Cocaine Sentencing Rules

The Editors — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:50:56 +0000

By The Editors
Once the sentencing rules for an offense are changed to lesser terms, is it fair to still subject some individuals to the old, harsher rules?

Supreme Court Stays Execution of Duane Buck

The Editors — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 22:30:36 +0000

By The Editors The U.S. Supreme Court late Thursday stayed the scheduled execution by the state of Texas of Duane Buck in order to review the appeal of Buck’s attorneys that his sentencing was tainted by racial bias. Buck, 48, who is African American, was convicted of the 1995 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Debra Gardner, [...]

Regretting Jim Crow: Richard H. Poff And the Costs of White Racism

The Editors — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:26:10 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
Given the fresh proof that the woeful neglect of American history in the schools has helped produce an astonishing ignorance of basic details of American history, it’s clearly foolish to expect that many today would recognize the name of Richard H. Poff.

Supreme Court Blocks Largest Discrimination Case in Nation’s History

The Editors — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:14:59 +0000

The Court’s ruling makes it more difficult for workers to collectively enforce their right to a discrimination-free workplace.

Civil Rights Groups Call for Retroactive Application of Guidelines for Cocaine Sentencing

The Editors — Tue, 31 May 2011 21:13:33 +0000

By Tyler Lewis
A group of seven prominent national civil rights organizations that includes The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder urging him to support the retroactive application of a new set of sentencing guidelines that accompany the implementation of the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), which reduced the discriminatory sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses.

Supreme Court Expands Inmates’ Ability to Sue for DNA Testing

The Editors — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:53:13 +0000

By The Editors
A Supreme Court ruling last week has made it easier for prisoners to sue for access to DNA evidence that might prove their innocence – but not by much.

Kagan Confirmed As The Nation’s Fourth Female Supreme Court Justice

The Editors — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 04:35:42 +0000

By The Editors Elena Kagan, the United States Solicitor General and former Dean of Harvard Law School, was confirmed by the Senate Thursday as the nation’s newest Justice of the Supreme Court.

Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Kagan Nomination

The Editors — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:37:35 +0000

By The Editors Solicitor General Elena Kagan, President Obama’s second nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, moved a step closer to confirmation Tuesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send her nomination to the full Senate.

Violence, Gun Rights, and Compassionate Progressivism

The Editors — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:08:27 +0000

By Khalil Gibran Muhammad
In the coming weeks, as Chicago officials extend handgun rights to its citizens in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision, and politicians debate whether or not urban residents will be better protected by armed soldiers, important lessons from the past should not go unheeded.

Supreme Court Bars Restrictive Gun-Control Laws

The Editors — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 03:07:04 +0000

By The Editors For the second time in two years, the Supreme Court narrowly ruled that gun-control laws cannot abridge the right to bear arms the Second Amendment grants individuals. The decision came in a case challenging the gun-control laws of Chicago and a nearby suburb, Oak Park, Illinois, McDonald v. Chicago, No. 08-1521.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Supports the Nomination of Elena Kagan to Supreme Court

The Editors — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 02:51:54 +0000

With only days until Senate confirmation hearings begin on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) has released a report examining the nominee’s civil rights record.

Text of Justice David Souter’s Speech: Harvard Commencement Remarks

The Editors — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 03:07:53 +0000

By Justice David H. Souter Former Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter recently received a honorary degree from Harvard University, his undergraduate and law school Alma Mater, and delivered the Commencement Address. His speech was a concerted criticism of the conservative judicial doctrine of “originalism,” which contends judicial decisions should be rendered by adhering to a strict reading of the Constitution.

LDF Victory in Chicago

The Editors — Sat, 29 May 2010 02:39:57 +0000

By Stacey Patton
This week LDF won another significant victory in the Supreme Court. In Lewis v. Chicago, the Court ruled unanimously that the City of Chicago can be held responsible for each time it used a hiring practice that arbitrarily blocked qualified black applicants from employment.

Justice Breyer on the Dred Scott Decision

The Editors — Sat, 29 May 2010 02:39:19 +0000

In April Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court spoke at the New York Historical Society about the historical and present-day importance of the infamous Dred Scott decision, which played a critical role in bringing about the Civil War. We cannot think of a more fitting momemt to contemplate Justice Breyer’s words than on Memorial Day, which began in 1868 in the North as a day to pay homage to the Civil War dead.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Succeeds in Defending Rights of 6,000 African-American Applicants for Chicago Firefighter Jobs

The Editors — Mon, 24 May 2010 17:56:04 +0000

After years fighting for justice, qualified African-American job applicants will finally have a fair opportunity to land a job with the Chicago fire department. Today the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the City of Chicago can be held accountable for each and every time it used a hiring practice that arbitrarily blocked qualified minority applicants from employment.

A Powerful Voice: Not Stilled, Still Heard

The Editors — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:17:21 +0000

By Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
In New York State Thurgood Marshall Day --appropriately -- also marks the anniversary of a great American milestone.

LDF Applauds Supreme Court Decision Declaring Life Without Parole Sentences for Children in Non-Homicide Cases Unconstitutional

The Editors — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:11:51 +0000

The United States Supreme Court declared that children convicted of non-homicide offenses cannot be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Court concluded that because adolescents are, by nature, less culpable than adults and because life without parole is an extreme sentence which is rarely imposed on teenagers, it is cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a child who has not killed to life without possibility of parole

Three ways to preserve Brown v. Board’s promise

The Editors — Mon, 17 May 2010 20:38:26 +0000

By Damon Hewitt Fifty-six years after the U.S. Supreme Court rendered its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, America is in a state of educational emergency. Many students attend schools where they are more likely to be suspended or expelled than to receive a high quality education. In terms of high school graduation, the most basic of all indicators of academic achievement, some students stand no better than a coin flip of a chance.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Statement on Nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court

The Editors — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:05:06 +0000

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund congratulates Ms. Kagan on her nomination and calls upon the Senate to consider the nomination expeditiously.

A Visit from Justice Stevens

The Editors — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:17:41 +0000

By Olympia Duhart His visit demonstrated the commitment Justice Stevens typically displays to inclusion and access. It was also consistent with Justice Stevens’ alignment with “the little guy.”

The Cost of “Free Speech” in ‘Citizens United’ for Black Candidates

The Editors — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:18:06 +0000

By Olympia Duhart In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that corporations are allowed to dip into their deep pockets to spend money to help elect or defeat candidates. In fact, they can spend all they want to support or oppose any candidate. The case effectively rolls back decades of restrictions on political campaign expenditures by corporations.

LDF Praises Justice Stevens for His Years of Service

The Editors — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:38:25 +0000

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund wishes to commend Justice Stevens upon the announcement of his retirement from the Supreme Court at the end of this term.

LDF Defends Chicago Black Firefighters

The Editors — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:28:14 +0000

By The Editors Washington, D.C. -- February 22 -- In a closely-watched case involving the hiring of black firefighters in Chicago, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. today urged the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent mis-interpreted technical rules from blocking the correction of discrimination in employment.

The (Missed) Opportunity of a Lifetime

The Editors — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:38:35 +0000

By Leslie Proll When President Obama took office last January, hopes were high that the right wing’s long stronghold on the federal courts had come to an end. LDF and other civil rights advocates were eager for a new day when fair and impartial judges would once again be nominated and confirmed in large numbers.

Obama at Year One

The Editors — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:31:02 +0000

By John Payton
A year ago, we could barely contain our excitement as we contemplated a historic achievement. Barack Obama had won a decisive victory. There was widespread enthusiasm for his Presidency. Right after the election, Gallup reported that 68 percent of the public was proud that Obama was President. His choices of Senator Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State, of Eric Holder to be Attorney General and of Robert Gates to remain as Secretary of Defense were well received. His Inaugural speech was brilliant. We were looking forward to acknowledging and confronting fundamental problems that have plagued our society for decades.