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Racial Justice
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Court of Special Appeals Holds "En Banc" Hearing Concerning Documents in NAACP/ACLU "Driving While Black" Case (9/29/2009)
On Tuesday, September 29, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals held an unusual "en banc" hearing in a lawsuit brought by the Maryland State Conference of NAACP Branches and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in which the Maryland State Police (MSP) has been found to have violated the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) by improperly withholding documents that would show whether it has meaningfully investigated complaints of racial profiling in the wake of a federal court consent decree in the ACLU's "Driving While Black" litigation. Oral arguments were heard before a three-judge panel in the case on May 11, but on July 31 the Court decided to re-hear the appeal before all 13 Court of Special Appeals judges. Such full court hearings by the intermediate appellate court are extremely rare, and the ACLU hopes that the hearing before the full Court signifies the Court’s recognition of the extreme public interest in the issue of racial profiling and that the Court will hold the MSP accountable by requiring it to provide the documents.
> Read more about "Driving While Black" in Maryland
> Read an Editorial from the Baltimore Sun about the case
 ACLU White Paper Says Guidelines Needed For Police In Schools (8/25/2009)
Allowing police officers to patrol school campuses without specific guidelines outlining their roles and responsibilities can create a harmful environment that unnecessarily pushes students out of school and into the criminal justice system, according to a new white paper released today by the American Civil Liberties Union.
> Press Release
> Report: Policing In Schools: Developing A Governance Document For School Resource Officers
Racial Profiling and Professor Henry Louis Gates' Arrest
Racial profiling was in the news this week because Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Professor at Harvard University, was a victim. This story is news because of the identity of the person profiled, not because of the rarity of the underlying police actions. More >>
> "A Teachable Moment?": Dennis Parker on GRITtv with Laura Flanders
> The Diane Rehm Show: Dennis Parker on Racial Profiling
> Boston Globe: "Racial profiling is Alive and Well" (Carol Rose, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts)
ACLU Releases Promoting Opportunity and Racial Equality in America: A Guide for Federal, State and Local Governments (7/22/2009)
Government officials are in a unique position to help make equality and opportunity a reality for all Americans. This document explains that even after the Supreme Court's June 2009 decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, federal, state, and local government officials may take actions to advance racial equality and promote opportunity for individuals from all racial backgrounds while respecting equal protection rights guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
> Read the whole Guide here
> Learn more about the Guide on our blog and a listen to a podcast with Nusrat Choudhury
> Visit the Fair Recovery website to learn about the disproportionate impact the economic crisis has had on communities of color
> For a brief explanation and walk-through of the Fair Recovery website, visit the Webinar (only your name is required to login)
 New Report From ACLU and RWG Finds Racial Profiling Still Pervasive (6/30/2009)
Widespread racial profiling by law enforcement agents as a result of Bush-era policies remains a pervasive problem throughout the United States, according to a report out today by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rights Working Group (RWG). Government policies are a major cause of the disproportionate stopping and searching of racial minorities by law enforcement agencies, according to the report, which was submitted today to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
>Press Release
>Click here to read the report
>Listen to a podcast with Dennis Parker, director of the ACLU Racial Justice Program |
ACLU Lawsuit Challenges Retaliatory Expulsion Of Student Under Unconstitutional Disciplinary Policy (10/19/2009)
OLIVE BRANCH, MS – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Mississippi today filed a lawsuit charging DeSoto County, Mississippi school and police officials with retaliation for expelling a ninth grade student who in April filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging that county authorities assaulted and racially discriminated against a group of schoolchildren riding home on a school bus.
UN Human Rights Body Issues Decisive Observations On Racial Discrimination In US (10/8/2009)
NEW YORK – In a letter to the Obama administration made public by the American Civil Liberties Union today, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concerns over a lack of progress to end racial discrimination in the United States. The letter urged the Obama administration and Congress to do more to end racial profiling, strengthen efforts to provide adequate and affordable housing to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, end the practice of sentencing juveniles – most of whom are persons of color – to life sentences without parole and address the deprivation of Western Shoshone American Indians of their ancestral lands.
Prince William County Drops Loitering Charges Brought Against Group of Latino Men (10/7/2009)
Prince William County, VA – The Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney has dropped charges brought against four Latino men who were arrested for loitering while merely standing on a public sidewalk near their apartment complex in Manassas.
ACLU Opposes Texas DA's Attempt To Use Seized Assets To Pay For Her Own Legal Defense (10/2/2009)
AUSTIN – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Texas today filed a brief with the Texas Attorney General's office opposing a request by Shelby County District Attorney Lynda K. Russell to use money she allegedly seized illegally from motorists to defend herself against a federal lawsuit accusing her of stripping drivers – almost all of them black – of their property without ever charging them with a crime. The brief also argues that either the county or state, both of which have refused to defend Russell, must be accountable for Russell's actions and cannot decline to represent her.
Records Suggest Racial Profiling In Homer And Claiborne Parish (10/1/2009)
NEW ORLEANS, LA --In the wake of last February's shooting death of Bernard Monroe at the hands of the Homer, LA police, the ACLU Foundation of Louisiana today reports an astonishing pattern of discrepancies in the racial composition of those arrested in Homer and in Claiborne Parish. Urged by members of the Homer community to investigate police practices there, the ACLU obtained public records of arrests in Homer and in Claiborne Parish for the year 2008. Statistical analyses of those records show that for 2008, African-Americans were arrested in such disproportionate numbers as to be virtually impossible without a pattern of racial profiling by law enforcement.
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