The Supreme Court heard rare second-round oral arguments in Louisiana v. Callais, a case that could fundamentally weaken or eliminate Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The case questions whether Louisiana’s creation of a second majority-Black congressional district (which elected Rep. …
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FBI Director Kash Patel fired approximately 15-20 agents photographed kneeling during 2020 George Floyd protests in Washington, D.C., reversing previous FBI leadership’s determination that the agents—using a de-escalation tactic borrowed from National Guard—committed no policy violations. The …
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally disestablished the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS), a 74-year-old panel established in 1951 following the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act. In a September 17 memo, Hegseth accused the committee of ‘advancing a …
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ICE detention facilities hold approximately 59,000 immigrants, exceeding capacity by 140%. Over 70% of detainees have no criminal record, and 93% have never been convicted of a violent crime, contradicting Trump’s repeated claims of targeting violent criminals. The overcrowding has led to …
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Federal Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued a landmark ruling ordering the Trump administration to stop indiscriminate immigration sweeps in Southern California. The ruling came after the ACLU brought a case alleging unconstitutional arrests and denial of attorney access. The judge found …
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The National Lawyers Guild hosts a comprehensive Week of Abolition training program for lawyers, paralegals, and activists, focusing on constitutional defense, protest rights, and strategic resistance methodologies. The training provides critical skills for protecting civil liberties and supporting …
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Two major legal technology platforms launch to support pro bono litigation and legal resistance: The Pro Bono Litigation Corps by Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) and Paladin’s Pro Bono Platform. These initiatives enable attorneys and law students to coordinate strategic litigation and …
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Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights division slashed from 550 to approximately 243 employees, leaving only 5 civil rights offices nationwide. Officials described this as making discrimination complaint resolution “virtually impossible.” Cuts part of Russell …
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A coalition of 287 civil rights attorneys and constitutional law experts convened in Washington D.C. to establish a coordinated national legal resistance infrastructure, focusing on protecting democratic institutions. Led by Abdul Dosunmu and featuring prominent civil rights lawyers, the summit …
Abdul DosunmuMarc MorialClarence OkohJessica PaigeCivil Rights Attorneys Coalitionlegal-networkscivil-rightscoordinated-litigationdemocracy-defenseyoung-lawyers-movement
Leading civil rights attorneys and legal organizations form a coordinated nationwide network to challenge unconstitutional policy implementations and protect fundamental rights. The network develops shared litigation strategies and pro bono support mechanisms. The Democracy 2025 coalition, …
Civil Rights Legal CoalitionPro Bono Defense NetworkDemocracy ForwardLawyers for Good GovernmentCivil Rights Corpslegal-resistanceconstitutional-defensepro-bono-litigationcivil-rightsdemocracy-protection
A coalition led by Campaign Legal Center, ACLU of Georgia, and other civil rights groups sent guidance to Georgia election officials on handling mass voter challenges under SB 189. The letter outlined legal concerns about baseless challenges based on unreliable data, reminded officials of federal …
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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announces the city is terminating its contract with ShotSpotter, the controversial gunshot detection technology company, bringing to an end one of the largest and longest-running deployments of acoustic surveillance in American policing. The contract will expire on …
The reliability and accuracy of ShotSpotter’s gunshot detection technology face a major crisis in August 2021 as the Chicago Office of Inspector General releases a damning report on the system’s effectiveness, while the Michael Williams case exposes evidence that ShotSpotter analysts …
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PredPol, the controversial predictive policing software company, rebrands itself as Geolitica in 2021 as criticism of algorithmic bias in law enforcement intensifies. The rebrand represents an attempt to distance the company from growing scrutiny of predictive policing’s discriminatory impacts …
The FBI signed an expedited agreement to extend its relationship with Dataminr on June 9, 2020, just days after nationwide demonstrations erupted following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The expanded contract provided FBI agents with enhanced access to Dataminr’s …
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Multiple academic studies and internal police audits published in 2019 provide comprehensive evidence of PredPol’s racial bias and failure to demonstrate effectiveness, undermining the fundamental claims that have justified the technology’s widespread adoption.
An internal audit by the …
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The ACLU of Northern California released a report revealing that Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram had provided special data access to Geofeedia, a surveillance technology company that marketed its location-based monitoring tools to law enforcement agencies for tracking Black Lives Matter protesters …
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The Chicago Police Department launches the Strategic Subject List (SSL), colloquially known as the “heat list,” a predictive policing mechanism designed to identify individuals most likely to be involved in gun violence either as perpetrators or victims. The program’s public debut …
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The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Shelby County v. Holder struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, which required federal preclearance for voting changes in states with histories of discrimination. Chief Justice Roberts argued the formula was outdated, while Justice Ginsburg warned it …
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The New Orleans Police Department launches a secretive predictive policing program in partnership with Palantir Technologies, a data-mining firm founded with seed money from the CIA’s venture capital arm In-Q-Tel. The program operates without public knowledge or oversight, escaping scrutiny …
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The Los Angeles Police Department launches Operation LASER (Los Angeles Strategic Extraction and Restoration), a controversial predictive policing program that runs from 2011 to 2019. The program is designed to identify and target individuals deemed at high risk of committing violent crimes using a …
Just three years after settling the landmark housing discrimination case with a court-supervised consent decree, the Department of Justice returned to federal court with new allegations: the Trump Organization had violated the settlement terms and continued systematic discrimination against Black …
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After nearly two years of aggressive legal combat, Donald Trump and his father Fred Trump signed a consent decree settling the Department of Justice’s landmark housing discrimination lawsuit. The settlement included the standard legal disclaimer that it was “in no way an admission” …
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The U.S. Department of Justice filed a major civil rights lawsuit against Donald Trump, his father Fred Trump, and their real estate company, Trump Management Inc., for systematic racial discrimination in housing. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, …
Donald TrumpFred TrumpRoy CohnRacismHousing DiscriminationTrump FamilyCivil RightsDOJ
The Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI burglarized an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole classified documents that exposed COINTELPRO—the FBI’s covert and illegal program to surveil, infiltrate, discredit, and disrupt American civil rights organizations and political …
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