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LDF Letter to New York State Commissioner of Education Urging Her to Remove Carl Paladino from Buffalo School Board

Read the PDF of our statement here. Today, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) sent a letter to MaryEllen Elia, New York State Commissioner of Education, calling on her to remove Carl Paladino from his position on the Buffalo School Board in the wake of his racially-charged comments about President and Mrs. […]

LDF Leads National Coalition Urging Federal Policy Makers to Reject Proposals to Place More Guns and Police Officers in Schools

Advocates working to dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline are sending a strong message to federal policymakers about how to keep school safe without enhancing police presence This week LDF and the Dignity in Schools Campaign are leading a national coalition of students, parents, teachers, researchers and legal advocates & activists working to dismantle the School to Prison […]

LDF Leads National Coalition Urging Federal Policy Makers to Reject Proposals to Place More Guns and Police Officers in Schools

Advocates working to dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline are sending a strong message to federal policymakers about how to keep school safe without enhancing police presence This week the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational fund (LDF) and the Dignity in Schools Campaign are leading a national coalition of students, parents, teachers, researchers and legal […]

LDF Leadership Featured in HuffPost

LDF Leader Says “Death Should Not Be The Consequence of Someone Having an Inadequate Lawyer”

Reacting to a Wednesday Supreme Court ruling that restored an Alabama death-row inmates right to appeal his sentence, LDF director John Payton told the Huffington Post that the decision “focuses attention on the larger issue that death should not be the consequence of someone having an inadequate lawyer.” The High Court ordered that Cory R. […]

LDF lawyers discuss voting rights from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma

LDF Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill and Special Counsel Debo Adegbile were interviewed on MSNBC at the foot of the Edmund Pettus bridge, the site where marchers were beaten by Alabama police in 1965 while protesting for voting rights. The annual commemoration of the march, which led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, was attended by […]

LDF Lawyer’s Call to Action After Supreme Court’s Wrenching Voting Rights Act Ruling

Leah C. Aden, NAACP LDF Fried Frank Fellow in the Political Participation Group, shines light on the adverse impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, which struck at the very heart of the Voting Rights Act on Tuesday, June  25, 2013. Aden lists steps all of us can take in the […]

LDF Lawyer to Discuss the Death Penalty with MSNBC ‘Up with Steve Kornacki’ on May 11, 2013

Watch Christina Swarns, LDF Director of the Criminal Justice Practice,  on May 11, 2013 at 8:00 AM on MSNBC “‘Up with Steve Kornacki” for an informed discussion on the death penalty. 

LDF Lawyer the Sole Black Lawyer To Argue in Supreme Court This Year

LDF Special Counsel Debo Adegbile was the only Black lawyer to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court during the last year.  Mr. Adegbile argued in the case of  Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder to preserve Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, an essential tool in defending the voting rights of African-American voters, and other voters of color, […]

LDF Lawyer Natasha Merle Confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

Today, the United States Senate voted to confirm Natasha Merle to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Ms. Merle has served at LDF since 2016, as Assistant Counsel, Senior Counsel, and most recently as Deputy Director of Litigation, and is the first attorney since LDF’s founder Thurgood Marshall, who […]