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Press Release

The Southern Poverty Law Center, in an open letter to members of the Louisiana House, outlined the fiscal and human dangers of House Bill 850, which would allow the state to accept offers for the private purchase and operation of Avoyelles Correctional Center.

The Southern Poverty Law Center urged Louisiana lawmakers to oppose a bill that bans state contracts from providing anti-discrimination protections to vulnerable populations that include LGBT people and English language learners – provisions that threaten to stifle economic growth and harm the state’s school children.

A federal court has approved the $1.5 million settlement agreement the Southern Poverty Law Center reached on behalf of more than 1,500 guestworkers owed back wages by an Arkansas agricultural company. The settlement is one of the largest agreements ever reached against a single employer of foreign guestworkers.

The U.S. Department of Justice has advised the Southern Poverty Law Center that it will investigate discrimination against students with disabilities in the Georgia public school system. The decision by the department’s Civil Rights Division follows an SPLC complaint filed with the Department of Justice in November.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) today condemned efforts by House Republicans to prevent a decorated 12-year U.S. Army veteran and other married gay and lesbian veterans from receiving the same disability benefits provided to their married heterosexual counterparts.

The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal lawsuit against Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin N. Gusman today, charging the Louisiana sheriff’s indifference has created brutal and inhumane conditions at the Orleans Parish Prison where prisoners endure rampant violence, multiple sexual assaults and neglect.

The American radical right grew explosively in 2011, a third consecutive year of extraordinary growth that has swelled the ranks of extremist groups to record levels, according to a report issued today by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The rise was led by a stunning expansion of the antigovernment “Patriot” movement.

Latinos in Alabama have experienced harassment, hardship and discrimination, regardless of their immigration status, as a result of the state’s anti-immigrant law, HB 56, and the xenophobic climate it has created, according to a report released today by the SPLC.

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.

A new study released today urges the closure of the Alabama Department of Youth Services’ Chalkville facility and the DYS-contracted Working on Womanhood program. The study determined that girls held at these juvenile facilities, many of whom are the victims of abuse, would fare much better in their own communities, where they would receive better rehabilitative services.