Tell Your Senators to Say “No” to Southwick

Alliance for Justice (afj.org) today asked that you urge your Senators to stop Leslie Southwick’s ascension to the federal bench. In recent meetings with Senators, staff expressed doubt that their constituents care about this nomination.

AFJ has been pressing for the defeat of Leslie Southwick’s nomination to the Fifth Circuit. But despite widespread opposition to the confirmation of Judge Southwick, his nomination was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last month and now is headed to the Senate floor.

The Congressional Black Caucus, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, People for the American Way, Human Rights Campaign, National Employment Lawyers Association, National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce, Mississippi NAACP, the Magnolia Bar and the Equal Justice Society are all calling for his defeat.

Click here to fax a message to your Senators’ offices to vote against Leslie Southwick.

Read more on the FairAndIndependentJudges.org blog.

EJS Joins Call Urging Calif. Supreme Court to End Discrimination Against Same-Sex Marriage

The Equal Justice Society authored one of 30 amicus briefs submitted to the California Supreme Court, urging the court to put an end to state laws that deny same-sex couples the protections of marriage.

EJS joined scores of religious, civil rights, and child advocacy organizations, along with numerous California municipal governments, bar associations, and leading legal scholars, to insist we treat all Californians equally.

See the full press release here.

New ReclaimCivilRights.org Site Launched to Serve as Resource on Civil Rights Enforcement

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund today launched a new site, ReclaimCivilRights.org, to serve as a clearinghouse for civil rights enforcement materials. The website features an interactive map demonstrating how individual states have been affected by recent rollbacks in civil rights enforcement as well as an interactive timeline that tracks civil rights progress and setbacks.

The site was announced today in a media briefing call with former Assistant Attorney General John Dunne, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights President Wade Henderson, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund President & Director/Counsel Theodore Shaw and MALDEF Regional Counsel Peter Zamora.

The call participants discussed the future of the Civil Rights Division the same day that a Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the 50th anniversary of the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

The 1957 Civil Rights Act, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, established the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice and created a federal civil rights legal infrastructure. The 1957 Act also expanded the Attorney General's reach in certain civil rights cases and established the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Full unedited testimony of all of the committee's witnesses, as well as key fact sheets and video, will be available at www.reclaimcivilrights.org.