Last week, Senate Republicans blocked legislation to establish a bipartisan truth commission on the 1/6 Insurrection at the Capitol. L4GG is still fighting for the truth.
Our pregnant client was denied entry to the US, then kidnapped in Mexico
On Thursday May 20, 2021 Charlene D’Cruz, Director of Project Corazon’s Border Rights Program, joined Sirius XM’s Tell Me Everything with guest host Nayyera Haq to discuss the constantly evolving situation at the border.
Charlene talked about the Title 42 expulsion policy and how it’s being used to effectively close the US border to nearly all asylum seekers.
L4GG Calls on Congress to Enact an Independent Commission on 1/6 Insurrection
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has announced that he’s opposed to creating a Congressional commission to examine and report the facts and causes relating to the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol.
In advance of the vote in the House of Representatives to advance legislation to create an independent commission, L4GG is calling on Congress to step up and enact the commission.
We’ve created a sign on letter and are asking our community of lawyers and activists to join.
What happened on January 6th was an attack on our democracy and threatens future peaceful transfers of power in our country. We must take this threat seriously.
Every day that our leaders in Congress delay enacting a commission is another day that a substantial portion of the electorate - and even a portion of Congress - denies the truth of what happened that day.
We need Congress to step up and enact the commission. This is bigger than party - this is the future of our country.
Urge Congress to enact a commission.
Tell them that our nation cannot heal without accountability and that we cannot silence those who would speak the truth.
Join us.
In solidarity,
Traci
Traci Feit Love
President & Executive Director
Lawyers for Good Government
L4GG calls on Senate to End Qualified Immunity
L4GG joined with the Constitutional Accountability Center and 87 other civil rights and advocacy organizations to calling on the Senate to end qualified immunity.
Congress gave the people the right to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment's promise of equal justice under the law, by allowing them to sue officials who violate their rights while acting under the color of state law. See 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Through the doctrine of qualified immunity, judicial activists on the Supreme Court effectively took that right away, disproportionately harming the marginalized communities that the Fourteenth Amendment and § 1983 were supposed to protect.
It's time for Congress to step up and return the right of the people to sue to protect their rights. Call your Senators and tell them to "end qualified immunity to ensure meaningful accountability measures in the Senate version of the Justice in Policing Act of 2021.”
L4GG’s Climate Change Program: How L4GG Honors Mother Earth
Vanita Gupta Confirmed as Associate Attorney General
L4GG's Statement on the Conviction of Derek Chauvin
Derek Chauvin has been found guilty on all counts of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. We commend the state of Minnesota for holding Chauvin accountable.
But as lawyers, we must stand for something more than holding murderers accountable after the fact.
We must demand justice, which will require deep systemic change.
1400+ Lawyers from all 50 States, DC, & Puerto Rico Call on Senate to Confirm Vanita Gupta & Kristen Clarke
Today, L4GG the nation’s largest network of attorneys committed to upholding human rights and equal justice for all, submitted an open letter, signed by more than 1,400 attorneys representing 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to the Senate Judiciary Committee, calling on them to confirm Vanita Gupta for the position of Associate Attorney General, confirm Kristen Clarke for the position of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, and to support other nominees who have experience leading the fight for civil rights.
VIEW THE LETTER HERE: https://l4gg.org/Support-Gupta-Clarke
The letter was sent ahead of Clarke’s nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, tomorrow, Wednesday April 14, and argues that Donald Trump’s administration worked to undermine civil and human rights on a number of different fronts, and to repair the damage done, the nation needs leaders at the Department of Justice who have experience fighting against injustice. After years of leading the fight for civil rights at two of the nation’s premier civil rights organizations, Gupta and Clarke are exactly the experienced leaders that our country needs. The letter also included signatures from more than 400 non-attorney advocates.
“The legal community is banding together at this moment to support the nominations of Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke because the future of our nation is at stake,” said Lawyers for Good Government’s president Traci Feit Love. “We call on every Senator who believes in equal justice under the law to help heal our country from the scourge of white supremacy by taking a stand for civil rights and voting to confirm Gupta and Clarke.”
“We applaud President Biden’s leadership in nominating these two civil rights experts to important positions at the Department of Justice,” said Lawyers for Good Government’s Vice President of Policy and Strategic Engagement Adam Fernandez. “I have worked with both Gupta and Clarke and am a civil rights attorney myself. Working in civil rights is about ensuring all people have equal access to justice regardless of their background. Gupta and Clarke’s dedication to civil rights and their expertise makes them uniquely qualified to lead the Department of Justice, and we hope they are the first of many nominees to positions across the Administration and the courts that share their credentials.”
Biden’s nominees a good first step toward achieving diversity on the federal bench, but more diversity is needed.
We applaud, with reservation, the Biden Administration for nominating a diverse set of candidates for the federal judiciary. Almost every demographic group in the nation is underrepresented in the federal courts, and the Trump Administration widened that gap by disproportionately nominating white men to the judiciary. This led, among other things, to the re-segregation of courts like the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. If confirmed, the Biden Administration’s nominees would do much to alleviate historic underrepresentation on the courts, by prioritizing the nominations of people of color, specifically African and Asian Americans.
“We cannot be ostriches with our heads in the sand” - L4GG on MSNBC
This past Saturday night, Charlene D’Cruz, Director of Project Corazon’s Border Rights Program, joined The Week with Joshua Johnson on MSBNC to talk about the current situation at the border.
Charlene discussed how four years of draconian immigration policies at the border have led to a recent increase in crossings and called on the Biden Administration to revoke Title 42, the public health law that is currently blocking asylum seekers from invoking their internationally-recognized legal right to flee persecution and seek asylum.
Watch an exclusive clip from that interview here.
As always, we rely on generous donations from supporters like you to serve as many asylum seekers as possible at the Matamoros / Brownsville Port of Entry.