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Full Court Hearing Begins in Federal Court to Decide Fate of Consent Decree Protecting Black Voting Rights and Judicial Representation in Louisiana

Today, the full Fifth Circuit will hear oral argument to reconsider a lower federal court order that upheld the landmark Chisom consent decree which came out of the case Chisolm v. Louisiana. The decree protects the rights of Black voters in Orleans Parish, Louisiana by providing an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice to […]

From Selma, Alabama, LDF President & Director-Counsel Appears on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show

From the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, NAACP LDF President & Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill appeared on Melissa Harris-Perry’s show on MSNBC on March 2 — one day before the annual commemoration of Bloody Sunday. Ms. Ifill’s appearance follows LDF’s February 27 oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, […]

From Brown II to Today: A Discussion with Sherrilyn Ifill and Nikole Hannah-Jones

On May 21, 2020, the Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. hosted a discussion between President and Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill and Pulitzer Prize winning writer Nikole Hannah-Jones on the consequences of segregated education, how the 1965 Brown II decision derailed the promise of Brown I, the ongoing policies and practices that perpetuate separate and unequal […]

Friends Recall a Giant of Civil Rights Law

Last week the world lost one of its most revered and effective legal warriors in the battle for civil rights: John A. Payton, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. President Barack Obama said in a statement, “The legal community has lost a legend, and while we mourn John’s passing, we […]

Friends of the Court Support UT Admission Practices

Updated Aug. 14, 1 p.m.: The chorus calling for the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the University of Texas at Austin’s current policy allowing race to be a factor in admissions decisions has been joined by the family of Heman Sweatt, who was famously denied access to the University of Texas School of Law in 1946 […]

Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association

On November 17, 2015, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) joined more than 70 civil and human rights organizations in filing an amicus curiae brief in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a challenge to the Supreme Court’s 1977 ruling in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, which affirmed the constitutionality of “fair share” provisions for public […]

Free the Vote: LDF and The Sentencing Project Release New Report on Felony Disenfranchisement

Read the PDF of our report here. Today, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and The Sentencing Project issued Free the Vote: Unlocking Democracy in the Cells and on the Streets, reporting on the racially discriminatory and ever-growing problem of felony disenfranchisement. The denial or abridgement of the right to vote for […]

Free the Vote for People with Felony Convictions

In the United States, as of 2018, nearly 6 million Americans, a disproportionate number of whom are people of color, are denied the right to vote on account of having felony convictions. Constitutional amendments protect against disfranchisement based on race, gender, and age. But there are no such recognized protections (yet) for those who have paid […]

Free the Vote

The Next Phase of the Voting Rights Movement: Freeing the Vote for People with Felony Convictions Securing the right to vote for the disfranchised—persons who have lost their voting rights as a result of a felony conviction—is widely recognized as the next phase of the voting rights movement. Nationwide, more than 5.3 million Americans who […]