Tuesday, January 17, 2017 | news
Voting rights are under siege in a way that hasn’t been seen in more than a generation. But these coordinated attacks follow a historic pattern: Laws that expanded the franchise during Reconstruction and after the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act have typically been followed by state-level repression and federal indifference. “With advancements in […]
Monday, October 31, 2016 | news
Appeals Courts are Dismantling Stricter Voter ID Laws In August, a federal district judge in Corpus Christi, Texas, approved a settlement agreed to by state officials that voters without the state-approved ID should be able to sign a declaration that they faced “reasonable impediments” in obtaining one. Those voters must be allowed to cast a […]
Wednesday, December 9, 2015 | news
Supreme Court Weighs Turning Back Clock On Redistricting A case before the Supreme Court this week has the potential to change equal access to political representation as we have known it for at least the last 50 years. In Evenwel v. Abbott, a case arising out of Texas, the court may decide whether apportioning legislative […]
Thursday, November 17, 2016 | news
North Carolina’s War on Voters Is Heating Up This all began anew with the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act in its landmark 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder, which removed a requirement that states with a history of racial discrimination receive approval from the Justice Department for all changes to election law. Republican legislators […]
Sunday, March 15, 2015 | news
Nation’s Oldest and Leading Civil Rights Legal OrganizationHas Fundamentally Changed America The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is marking its 75th anniversary this year. Thurgood Marshall, who became the nation’s first black Supreme Court Justice, founded LDF on March 20, 1940. Marshall imagined an America that did not yet exist, one where there […]
Thursday, June 26, 2025 | news
Today, LDF sent a letter to Senate and Congressional leaders, opposing the Senate amendment to H.R.1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act. The organizations also urged the Senate to reject both the procedurally impermissible provisions included in the bill, and to reject the harmful policies outlined in the letter, which cut programs that are lifelines to […]
Friday, March 9, 2018 | news
Read a PDF of our statement here. Leading Civil Rights Organizations Urge Court to Recognize How Oppressive and Racially Biased Policing Constrains the Freedom to Leave Leading civil rights groups filed an amicus brief in the New York State Court of Appeals in The People v. Nicholas Hill. In the case, a split First Department panel […]
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 | news
Today, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), — along with the NAACP, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Action Network, National Urban League, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) — sent a letter to top lawmakers in Congress urging them […]
Tuesday, May 15, 2018 | news
Related Case or Issue: Davis v. City of New York Today, a court-appointed facilitator, Ariel Belen, issued a report on community-generated reforms to New York City Police Department (NYPD) stop-and-frisk and trespass arrest practices that were developed as part of the Joint Remedial Process. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. (LDF), The Bronx Defenders, […]
Tuesday, January 19, 2021 | news
In the aftermath of the January 6 deadly attack on Congress by far right extremists, including white nationalists, 135 civil and human rights organizations led by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Arab American Institute, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, Muslim Advocates, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund called on Congress to […]
