Tracey Cooper-Harris served for 12 years in the U.S. Army and received multiple commendations. But because she’s in a marriage with a person of the same sex, the government refuses to grant her the same disability benefits as heterosexual veterans.
The SPLC today threatened to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against Brookwood High School in Alabama if the school does not stop censoring student speech in support of LGBT rights and does not rescind a policy barring same-sex couples from attending the prom together.
With a new year upon us, many state legislatures across the country will be convening. Some may attempt to follow in the steps of Alabama by passing harsh, anti-immigrant legislation. Before they do, they should remember Alabama.
Georgia continues to unjustly target immigrants through shameful and un-American tactics. Those tactics are illuminated by new regulations proposed by the state’s Immigration Enforcement Review Board (IERB) – rules that propel the state further in the wrong direction.
Criminalization of ordinary school misbehavior is not uncommon at the Jefferson Parish Public School System, located in the New Orleans suburbs. In fact, it’s the norm – and African-American students are disproportionately targeted for arrest. The SPLC filed a federal civil rights complaint on behalf of four African-American students who faced mistreatment at the hands of police officers stationed in Jefferson Parish schools.
The SPLC has asked a federal court to force Jackson Public Schools to turn over key documents describing the practice of handcuffing students in an alternative school to a pole for hours at a time as punishment for minor infractions.
A federal district court today temporarily blocked major parts of South Carolina’s anti-immigrant law as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and its allies challenging the law as unconstitutional.
A federal judge set a historic legal precedent by granting class action status to a human trafficking lawsuit involving more than 350 Filipino teachers – a decision likely to benefit countless other human trafficking victims in the future.
The most damning proof that Alabama’s anti-immigrant law was born of xenophobia and vile stereotypes comes straight from the mouths of the lawmakers behind it.
By Ebony Howard, Staff Attorney/Juvenile Justice Policy Specialist
12/13/2011
Every single day, when students walk into school in Birmingham, Ala., they face the threat of being sprayed with pepper spray. In this school system, pepper spray is routinely used as punishment by police officers stationed in schools.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has won some encouraging victories in the months since we launched our effort to defeat Alabama’s harsh anti-immigrant law. We’ve also had some disappointments. But this legal battle is far from over. In fact, it’s just getting started.
The Southern Poverty Law Center today filed a federal class action lawsuit today on behalf of several aspiring college students who are denied in-state college tuition rates in Florida because they cannot prove the lawful immigration status of their parents.
An appellate court in Kentucky has upheld the SPLC’s $1.3 million verdict against a Klan leader at the center of a large network of neo-Nazis, racist skinheads and other violent white supremacists.
Though the civil rights movement is one of the defining events of U.S. history, most states fail when it comes to teaching the movement to students, a first-of-its-kind study released today by the Southern Poverty Law Center has found.
