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Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder
In 2006, just days after President Bush signed into law the bill reauthorizing core provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a small water district in Austin, Texas filed a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C. challenging the preclearance provision known as Section 5 of the Act. ...
MoreWright v. Stern: NYC Parks Case
In court papers filed in 2001, current and former employees of the New York City Parks Department alleged that African-American and Latino employees Parks workers had been denied equal employment opportunities. As a result of long-term, systemic discrimination throughout the Parks Department...
MoreHerbert Williams, Jr. v. Commissioner Richard F. Allen
On September 17, 2008, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Williams v. Allen, 542 F.3d 1326 (11th Cir. 2008), vacated the death sentence of LDF client, Herbert Williams, who had spent almost 20 years on Alabama’s death row. LDF litigated the case with co-counsel from...
MoreBad Times in Tulia, Texas
An African-American Community in Texas is Victimized by the "War on Drugs"
On July 23, 1999, more than ten percent of Tulia's African-American population was arrested as the result of a drug "sting" conducted by a lone police officer with a...
MoreRosales v. Quarterman
Mariano Rosales spent more than 23 years on Texas’s death row after being convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death by a Harris County (Houston) jury from which African Americans and Latinos were excluded because of their race. Between 1985 and 2008, Mr. Rosales...
MoreUniversity of Michigan Race-Conscious Admissions
In June 2003, the Supreme Court issued landmark rulings in two companion cases, Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger. In Grutter, the Court rebuffed a constitutional challenge to the use of race in admissions to the University of Michigan Law School....
MoreHerring v. Marion County Election Board
On October 24, 2008, LDF settled a lawsuit filed just two days earlier, and designed to protect the voting rights of foreclosure victims. The suit, Herring v. Marion County Election Board, was filed in Indiana state court to ensure that eligible voters who may have faced the threat of...
MoreAbercrombie & Fitch Employment Discrimination
In June 2003, LDF filed a class action lawsuit, Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, against national clothing retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, charged that in addition to selling so-called "classic" looks, Abercrombie...
MoreBoisseau v. Picard
For many months after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the City of New Orleans, residents struggled to return home. Displaced residents found themselves navigating a maze of obstacles: securing affordable housing in a safe neighborhood, obtaining gainful employment at a living wage and with...
MoreCommonwealth of PA v. Raymond Whitney
On January 16, 2008, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge William Mazzola threw out the death sentence of LDF client, Raymond Whitney. Mr. Whitney, an African-American man, had been on Pennsylvania's death row for twenty-six years. Not only was Mr. Whitney inadequately represented at trial,...
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