Civil rights

October 17, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today sent the following letter to Attorney General-Designate, Judge Michael Mukasey, asking him how he intends to protect the civil rights of all Americans if he is confirmed Attorney General.    » read more »

“Strengthening FISA: Does The Protect America Act Protect Americans' Civil Liberties And Enhance Security?”

September 25, 2007 -- The Committee holds this hearing today to consider the Protect America Act, passed in haste in early August.    » read more »

9/15/2007 -- Today in Charleston, SC, Hillary Clinton will announce her agenda to fight discrimination as President and to restore the federal government’s historic role as a champion of civil rights. She will focus on renewing and strengthening the Department of Justice’s civil rights mission. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.    » read more »

September 5, 2007 -- This Sunday our Nation will mark the golden anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. It was the first major civil rights law passed since Reconstruction, and it remains one of the most important pieces of legislation this Committee and the Congress ever considered. Its story has been retold in the award-winning books Master of the Senate by Robert Caro and Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch.    » read more »

August 30, 2007 -- This week the Michigan Department of Civil Rights (MDCR) formally requested that the Secretary of State (SOS) be made to hold hearings or otherwise allow for public comment regarding the proposed rule changes in voting requirements.

"Potential changes to the voting processes must be given the full public scrutiny they deserve," said MDCR Director Linda V. Parker. "Beyond that, the law does not allow for changes to voting processes without public debate."    » read more »

August 28, 2007 -- With the resignation of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the NAACP urges President George W. Bush to nominate an individual with a real commitment to the protection and promotion of civil rights for all Americans. Areas that have been largely ignored over the last six years include voting rights, employment rights, police misconduct and housing discrimination.    » read more »

August 28, 2007 -- Today, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and DNC Black Caucus Chair Virgie Rollins issued the following statement in honor of the 44th Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom:    » read more »

August 23, 2007 -- “This is yet another high level departure from a Justice Department that has seen its leadership ranks emptied in the last few months. The vacancy rate at the department’s highest levels is another index of the extent to which the current Administration has blunted the Justice Department’s sense of direction and tainted its sense of purpose.    » read more »

August 16, 2007 -- Washington, DC — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today sent President Bush the following letter, requesting that the President provide all documents and other information sought by the House and Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees in order to conduct oversight of the implementation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA):

August 16, 2007

The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:    » read more »

8/5/2007 -- "I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Oliver White Hill, a pioneer during the civil rights era. Hill was an attorney with the NAACP and Legal Defense Fund. Hill fought alongside his good friend Thurgood Marshall on the Brown v. Board of Education cases and in the 1940's practiced law in Virginia fighting on behalf of the separate-but-equal framework on a broad equalization campaign for better pay, transportation, and facilities for African American teachers and students. Hill was often quoted as saying, 'I went to law school so I could go out and fight segregation.'    » read more »

August 3, 2007 -- Washington, DC — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the following remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate today in support of the Rockefeller-Levin bill to modernize FISA and in opposition to the Bond bill:

“I appreciate the hard work that all sides have put into developing this legislation. This is a very difficult and controversial matter, with critically important national security and civil liberties concerns that cannot be and have not been taken lightly.    » read more »

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley Files Brief Defending Lynn’s School Desegregation Program

July 17, 2007 -- BOSTON – Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed a brief today in United States District Court in Massachusetts urging the Court to deny a request by plaintiffs' attorneys in the case Comfort et al. v. Lynn School Committee et al. to re-open their challenge to the City of Lynn's voluntary, race-conscious school assignment plan.    » read more »

June 29, 2007 -- Across the country, people expressed dismay at yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling that turned back the clock on 53 years of work by schools around the country to provide all children with a quality education. Editorial boards echoed the sentiment saying that the Court “repudiated the last half-century of race-conscious efforts to overcome that tortured racial legacy,” “will accelerate the trend toward school resegregation in many parts of the country,” and that in the “name of abiding by the letter of Brown, the court has dishonored its spirit.”    » read more »

CHICAGO – (June 28, 2007)- The following is a statement from Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., founder and president of Rainbow PUSH Coalition, in response to the latest Supreme Court decision to sharply limit the ability of school districts to manage the racial makeup of the student bodies in their schools.

In a cynical twist of logic and history, the right-wing conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court today cited Brown v. Board of Education to take a major step toward dismantling the historic 1954 decision’s purpose and effect.    » read more »