With this 2-minute action item from L4GG, we can stop family separation
Celebrating Human Rights Day with L4GG
For today’s Human Rights Day celebration, I encourage the legal community to reflect on what it means to have inalienable rights and equal dignity and worth of every person.
We all have inalienable rights, regardless of race, color, language, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability status. Where the law does not recognize those rights, they can and must be changed.
Lawyers for Good Government Announces Name Change
L4GG Celebrates Five Years With Event Series
In November of 2016, Traci Feit Love made a post on Facebook, as a lawyer, a parent, and a person uncertain about the future, and wanting to make change. When she made that post, she had no idea what that spark would ignite, and how many lawyers would respond.
Now, five years later, Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) has grown into an organization with thousands of supporters like you, all across the country, who are working towards real change. We are lawyers, law students, and activists who believe in using our skills and expertise to build a better world, from the halls of legislation to making an impact on-the-ground.
L4GG would like to invite you to join us for a series of events to celebrate L4GG’s impact over the last five years, and share with you our vision for the future of L4GG.
Check out the schedule of events here and click Follow Calender to register. You can attend as many events as you’d like — whatever works for your schedule.
Can’t make an event? Register and we’ll send you the recording, that way you don’t miss out.
From the bottom of my heart, L4GG thanks you for your continued support throughout the years. We hope you’ll join us to celebrate the future, and for whatever the next 5 years will bring.
New Report: Voters of Color Suffer Without Paid Leave
Today, Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) released its new report indicating that there are still many legal barriers that prevent people from exercising their civic duty, and that those barriers primarily affect Black and Brown voters.
The report, titled “No Time To Vote: Achieving Racial Equity in Paid Time Off on Election Day”, says that during the 2016, 2018, and 2020 elections, Black and Brown voters waited longer to vote than white voters. In 2016, voters in predominantly Black communities waited 29% longer than voters in predominantly white communities.
To combat the discriminatory impacts on voters of color, the report offers the recommendation that states require that employees have time to vote without penalty or loss of wages. The report found that while thirty states require employers to allow their employees time off to vote on Election Day, the vast majority of the states that require leave for voting cap the time requirement at one, two, or three hours. These caps are problematic because voters must often stand in line for far longer, forcing them to choose between their income and exercising their right to vote. Additionally, six states require employers to allow leave, but require that the leave is unpaid.
“Making voting accessible and equitable is a racial justice issue. Significant numbers of people continue to vote in person on Election Day, and while our nation has progressed beyond the overt racism of poll taxes and literacy tests, a persistent barrier has been long lines to vote and the so-called ‘time tax,’ which continues to disenfranchise people of color. Our report hopes to shed light on this disparity and suggest viable solutions to make voting fairer for all Americans.”
“In order to uphold the tenets of our democracy, it needs to work for everyone. To do that, we recommend policy changes that guarantee that all workers will have the necessary amount of time to leave work to vote without penalty or loss of pay. Our suggestions also provide an explicit private right of action to hold employers accountable if they violate the policy. In this way, we hope to see a new day for racial equity in voting, and the strengthening of our democracy.”
L4GG Releases New Policy Report on Child Farmworkers in Dangerous Conditions
L4GG is proud to release our first-ever report from our Lawyers for Racial Justice initiative. Our report, “Child Farmworkers: Too Young, Vulnerable, & Unprotected,” highlights the lack of regulatory protections for child farmworkers and its racially discriminatory impact on children of color.
L4GG and Human Rights Organizations Petition IACHR to Direct US to End Title 42
Lawyers For Good Government (L4GG), alongside several other human rights organizations, have filed a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) regarding Title 42.
The petition asks the IACHR order the United States to take urgent steps to protect asylum seekers from the risk of irreparable harm caused by the Title 42 policy, and to implement measures to protect other asylum seekers who are or would be subject to Title 42 expulsions.
You can read the petition here.
L4GG Joins 28 Organizations in Amici Brief Showing Harms from Title 42
On Friday, September 24, Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) and its immigrants’ rights initiative Project Corazon joined a diverse coalition of 28 other organizations to file an amici curiae (“friends of the court”) brief illustrating the particular harm and suffering that Title 42 - a racist Trump-era policy that uses the pretense of the pandemic to expel migrants—inflicts on children and their families.
"End the War on Black Immigrants!" — L4GG joins the UndocuBlack Network in call to Biden, Pelosi
After the horrific events in Del Rio, Texas, in which hundreds of Haitians seeking safety were rounded up by border agents on horseback using lariats, the UndocuBlack Network issued a letter to President Biden, Vice President Harris, Speaker of the House Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer to end the war on Black immigrants.
The letter calls for the end of Title 42, as well as support for Haitian immigrants, and investment in a humane and holistic immigration system.
To read the letter, click here.
Title 42 is illegal and immoral, period.
Since January of 2021, L4GG has been fighting for and securing hundreds of exemptions from Title 42 for extremely vulnerable asylum seekers with medical needs, disabilities, and unaccompanied children.
That's why we’re profoundly disappointed that the Biden Administration is appealing yesterday’s federal court decision to block Title 42 expulsions for families.