Latinos with limited English proficiency are being treated more harshly for traffic offenses than others appearing before a parish court in Louisiana, according to a federal civil rights complaint filed today by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
A for-profit prison operator has denied immigrant detainees access to attorneys at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, one of the nation’s largest immigrant detention centers, the SPLC and a coalition of civil rights activists and legal experts told government officials today.
Following the Watergate scandal in the mid-1970s, the U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities – popularly known as the Church Committee – issued reports revealing that federal agencies had spied on U.S. citizens for years.
I’m honored this weekend to be a participant in the 2016 Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage led by the legendary John Lewis and sponsored by the Faith & Politics Institute. Typically, we host the pilgrimage at the Civil Rights Memorial in front of our office during its journey through Alabama. But, this year, the pilgrimage is going to South Carolina instead of Alabama.
A federal judge this week ordered a Gulf Coast seafood company to pay $30,000 to 18 guest workers whose wages were pushed below the minimum wage by their employer, resolving one of the claims in an SPLC lawsuit.
SPLC President Richard Cohen released the following statement following the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Merrick Garland.
Nearly three dozen prominent national and state civil rights and criminal justice groups have joined the SPLC in support of federal legislation that would end debtors’ prison practices nationwide and strip federal funding from municipalities engaging in them.
An agreement has been reached with the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) to ensure that prisoners with disabilities receive treatment and services required under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If approved by the judge, the settlement will resolve part of a federal lawsuit filed by the SPLC and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program (ADAP) over inadequate care of inmates.
The following statement regarding the U.S. Department of Justice’s letter today to judges and court administrators about unconstitutional state court policies is by Sam Brooke, deputy legal director at the Southern Poverty Law Center:
The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined for the third time to hear a challenge to the constitutionality of a state law banning “conversion therapy” for minors.