Your Search Results

LDF Calls for a Full Investigation of the Police In-Custody Death of Sandra Bland

Amid disturbing allegations of police abuse and use of excessive force, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) joins calls for a full and complete investigation into the in-custody death of Sandra Bland, who was found hanging in a cell at Waller County, TX Jail on July 13, 2015.  She was only 28 […]

LDF Calls for a Fair and Impartial Trial in Marielle Franco and Anderson Gomes’ Murders

Today, a murder trial begins for Élcio Vieiria Queiroz, former law enforcement officer and Ronnie Lessa, a former military police sergeant, accused of gunning down Marielle Franco, a 38-year-old queer Black woman, human rights defender, and Rio de Janeiro city council member, and Anderson Gomes, her 39-year-old driver, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Franco’s 2018 […]

LDF Calls for a Comprehensive Federal Review of Police Killings of Unarmed African Americans

(NEW YORK, NY) –The fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager by police in Ferguson, Missouri, is the latest tragic incident in a summer marked by several police-involved homicides. In this case, the conflicting accounts about why Mr. Brown was killed demand a thorough and impartial investigation by federal authorities. “These incidents erode […]

LDF Brochures

LDF Brochure

LDF Brings JP Schnapper-Casteras on Board as Special Counsel for Appellate and Supreme Court Advocacy

LDF today announced that John Paul Schnapper-Casteras has joined the organization as Special Counsel for Appellate and Supreme Court Advocacy.  In this newly created role, Schnapper-Casteras, known as JP, will work with LDF attorneys on all aspects of civil rights litigation, particularly strategic development and preparation of appellate and Supreme Court briefs. “We are delighted […]

LDF Brief Sets Out Legal Basis for Marriage Equality

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in two landmark cases seeking marriage equality for gay and lesbian people.  LDF has submitted a brief in each case asking the Court to overturn laws that discriminate against gays and lesbians.  LDF’s friend-of-the-court brief in United States v. Windsor urged the Court to strike the Defense of Marriage Act […]

LDF Blog: When Power is Divorced from Rule of Law (WI 2020 Primary Election)

When Power Is Divorced From Rule Of Law The U.S. Supreme Court’s Wisconsin Election Decision Should Serve as A Warning to Us All By Sam Spital LDF Director of Litigation As LDF’s President and Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill stated in this powerful piece: “We must never forget the images we saw in Wisconsin this week.” Those images showed […]

LDF BLOG: It’s Time for the Federal Government to Get Serious About Addressing COVID-19

It’s Time to for the Federal Government to Get Serious About Addressing COVID-19 April 24, 2020 America’s ability to limit the death and economic destruction caused by COVID-19 depends on dramatically ramping up testing for the coronavirus – a reality that the President and United States Congress acknowledge with the passage and signing of the […]

LDF Blog Speaks to the Criminalization of the Black Community

Jin Hee Lee, Senior Counsel in LDF’s Criminal Justice Project, writes in a blog for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty about how the Trayvon Martin tragedy is related to the racial discrimination in our capital punishment system.