Monday, March 13, 2023 | news
The decision from the Court in the Bradford case, which spans three decades, leaves another generation of schoolchildren in Baltimore City Public Schools without the equitable funding needed for a quality education On March 3, 2023, a Maryland Circuit Court granted summary judgment to the State of Maryland in Bradford v. Maryland State Board of […]
Tuesday, February 25, 2014 | news
This year, Christina Swarns, Director of LDF’s Criminal Justice Practice and Interim Director of Litigation has been chosen as an Honorary Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, from which she is an alum. Past honorees include Ralph Nader, Marian Wright Edelman, Leonard Boudin, Morris Dees, Justice Cruz, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Michael Posner, Cory […]
Tuesday, October 15, 2013 | news
Christina Swarns, Interim Director of Litigation and Director of the Criminal Justice Practice at LDF attended a performance of the new Broadway adaptation of “A Time to Kill,” which is based on John Grisham’s bestselling novel and a popular motion picture. “A Time to Kill,” one of the most celebrated courtroom dramas of the last […]
Friday, February 13, 2015 | news
Christina Swarns talks about what the mantras “Hands up, don’t shoot,” “I can’t breathe,” and “Black lives matter” mean for the current and historic civil rights movements. “Hands up, don’t shoot.” “I can’t breathe.” “Black lives matter.” These are the now ubiquitous chants, hashtags and mantras that stand as succinct and eloquent expressions of the […]
Tuesday, July 16, 2013 | news
The George Zimmerman verdict has provoked passionate debate about legal justice and race in the U.S. Judy Woodruff gets reaction from Christina Swarns of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Monday, October 17, 2016 | news
For a Rare Moment at the Supreme Court, the Genders Were on Equal Footing Sullivan is a familiar player at the Supreme Court, but one of the female lawyers making her first argument at the court this month was Christina A. Swarns, director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). Her […]
Monday, November 7, 2016 | news
Dylan Roof Shouldn’t Get the Death Penalty Today is the start of the federal death penalty trial of Dylann S. Roof, the white man accused of murdering black worshipers at the Mother Emanuel church in Charleston, S.C. The killings of “the Charleston Nine” last year were as violent and seared with racial hatred as the […]
Thursday, April 20, 2017 | news
Buck may not stop here after all. Twenty years after Duane Buck was put on Death Row, partly due to racist testimony from a so-called “expert witness”, a Texas court vacates his death sentence.
Wednesday, June 7, 2017 | news
Who Is Dangerous, and Who Dies? Then, not long ago, I read about the case of Buck v. Davis, decided by the Supreme Court on Feb. 22. Duane Buck had been convicted of capital murder in 1997. He killed his ex-girlfriend and one of her friends. The details of the crime are appalling, but no […]
Tuesday, November 29, 2016 | news
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Criminal Justice in the 21st Century The NAACP Legal Defense Fund used the legal system to overcome separate but equal, desegregate schools and public facilities, and bring some measure of equal justice to African Americans living under Jim Crow laws in the U.S. What role does this legendary organization […]
