Thursday, January 27, 2022 | careers
The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the country’s first and foremost civil and human rights law organization. Founded in 1940 under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall, who subsequently became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, LDF was launched at a time when the nation’s aspirations for equality and due process […]
Monday, December 16, 2024 | news
Media Contacts: Troi Barnes, media@naacpldf.org Alejandra Lopez, The Legal Aid Society, ailopez@legal-aid.org Alora Sherbert, Queens Defenders, press@queensdefenders.org ***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*** (New York, NY) – Today, multiple organizations and advocates convened a press conference and rally on the steps of City Hall ahead of a New York City Council oversight hearing on the New York […]
Friday, December 11, 2020 | case-issue
On December 17 2019, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice (CHHIRJ) at Harvard Law School filed an amicus brief in the matter of Commonwealth v. Evelyn urging the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to recognize that an individual’s identity as a Black teenage boy […]
Friday, February 16, 2018 | case-issue
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, on appeal, and in his first post-conviction proceedings, he was […]
Thursday, October 11, 2012 | news
At yesterday’s oral argument, the Justices grappled with the University of Texas’s articulation of what I will call “diversity within diversity,” referring to the consideration of distinctive characteristics of individuals within underrepresented minority groups. On closer consideration, the University’s approach is fully consistent with the Supreme Court’s precedents, including Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) and Regents of the University […]
Wednesday, November 13, 2019 | case-issue
SUPREME COURT DECISION In Comcast v. National Association of African American-Owned Media (NAAAOM), the United States Supreme Court ruled on March 23 2020 that it is not sufficient for plaintiffs to present factual allegations in their complaint showing the defendant was motivated by racial discrimination in denying a contract opportunity. Under Section 1981, a plaintiff must now […]
Monday, June 22, 2015 | news
Today, the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund (LDF) welcomes Columbia Law School Graduate Liliana Zaragoza as the first John Payton Appellate and Supreme Court Advocacy Fellow of the organization which turns 75 this year. Zaragoza was a 2013-2015 Skadden Fellow and Staff Attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group and has been a longtime advocate for the […]
Friday, January 24, 2014 | news
(Jack Greenberg and his wife Debbie are in the top left picture.) On Friday, January 24, Columbia Law School hosted a conference honoring Jack Greenberg’s indelible influence on the civil rights bar. Greenberg is the Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. Professor of Law at Columbia University and LDF’s second Director-Counsel from 1961-84. Greenberg first joined LDF in 1949 […]
Tuesday, May 13, 2025 | case-issue
The Colorado Voting Rights Act (COVRA) Enacted: May 2025 The Colorado Voting Rights Act, Explained As Black voters face the greatest assault on voting rights since Jim Crow, Colorado has continued its progress in advancing the freedom to vote and joined the growing list of states protecting voters against unequal access to the ballot. In May […]
Friday, August 14, 2015 | news
Yesterday, the Colorado Court of Appeals unanimously declared that a Colorado bakery’s refusal to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples violates Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA). This decision affirmed the May 2014 finding of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission that no person can be denied the full and equal enjoyment of places of public accommodation on […]
