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Federal Trial Concludes in Challenge to Florida Law That Undermines Voting Rights Restoration

May 06, 2020

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal trial that will impact the right to vote for hundreds of thousands of Floridians concluded today after more than a week of testimony and arguments. The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida...

Judge Strikes Down Tennessee School Voucher Law

May 04, 2020

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Public school children in Tennessee won today when Davidson County Chancellor Anne C. Martin struck down the state’s private school voucher law, known as the Education Savings Account (ESA) Pilot Program...

Groups Urge Mississippi to Use $204 Million in CARES Act Education Funding to Help Students Who Need It Most

May 04, 2020

JACKSON, Miss. – Education advocates are urging state leaders in Mississippi to use the millions of dollars the state is receiving in federal emergency funding to advance equity and support children and families...

LDF, SPLC, and ADAP File Federal Lawsuit Challenging Alabama’s Lack of Safe and Accessible Voting During COVID-19 Pandemic

May 01, 2020

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Today, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program (ADAP) filed a federal lawsuit against Alabama Governor Kay...

SPLC: Victory in Florida Court Moves Us Closer to Goal of Freeing Them All

May 01, 2020

MIAMI – Late Thursday night, U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke issued an order requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to begin the process of releasing hundreds of people from three South Florida detention centers...

Public Interest Group Petitions Alabama Supreme Court to Release Children in Juvenile Facilities Due to COVID-19 Outbreak

April 30, 2020

Montgomery, Alabama -- With hundreds of deaths and thousands of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Alabama, the Children and Youth Advocacy Network (CYAN) has petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court to take immediate statewide action to...

Southern Poverty Law Center demands federal investigation now in the death of Ahmaud Arbery

April 30, 2020

Montgomery, Alabama — Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was shot to death on February 23 by two white men while he was out for a jog in Satilla Shores, a community a few miles from where he resided in Glynn County, Georgia...

In Race to Avert Catastrophe, Advocates Demand Immigrants Be Freed from Notorious Georgia Detention Centers

April 30, 2020

ATLANTA – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta (AAAJ) today filed a motion for preliminary injunction in their lawsuit seeking the immediate release of medically vulnerable...

SPLC Statement on Trump Administration Executive Order Targeting Workers at Poultry and Meat Processing Plants

April 29, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) issued the following statement by Meredith Stewart, senior supervising attorney with the Immigrant Justice Project, on the Trump administration’s executive order using the...

Tennessee Court to Hear Argument in Lawsuits Challenging Voucher Program

April 29, 2020

Nashville, Tenn. – The Chancery Court for Davidson County will hear oral arguments today in two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Tennessee’s private school voucher law, the Education Savings Account (ESA) Pilot...

SPLC Welcomes Eric K. Ward as Senior Fellow

April 23, 2020

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — One of the nation’s leading experts on hate and extremism, Eric Ward, will be joining the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a senior fellow on April 27 to advise its hate and extremism work. Ward, who will...

SPLC Action Fund: Louisiana Legislators’ Election Plan 'Needlessly Risks Voters’ Health'

April 22, 2020

BATON ROUGE, La. - The Louisiana Senate Committee on Senate and Governmental Affairs and House Committee on House and Governmental Affairs met today to approve an emergency plan regarding upcoming elections in the state. The...

SPLC Statement on President Trump’s Threat to Suspend Immigration

April 21, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) issued the following statement by Melissa Crow, senior supervising attorney with the SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project, regarding President Trump’s threat to suspend...

Advocates: Communities Hang in the Balance as Florida Denies Equal Access to Critical, Life-saving Resources Amid Pandemic

April 21, 2020

Versión española abajo. / Ayisyen vèsyon kreyòl anba a. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, a coalition of nearly 40 immigrant rights organizations are calling on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other state leaders to answer for the...

In Victory for Detained Immigrants, Federal Judge Orders ICE to Review for Release Every Person with Covid-19 Risk Factors

April 20, 2020

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A federal judge today ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to promptly revisit custody determinations, including consideration of release for all persons in ICE detention whose age or health...

SPLC Statement on SCOTUS Unanimous Juries Decision

April 20, 2020

Today the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ramos v. Louisiana that the federal right to a unanimous jury under the Sixth Amendment applies to states. “This is a significant victory against Jim Crow era laws whose only purpose is...

No more delays, we need to get people out of jails and prisons in the South now

April 20, 2020

Montgomery, Alabama -- Incarcerated people have died from COVID-19 in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana. These deaths have occurred while all four states have resisted efforts to significantly reduce their prison...

Detained Migrants Win in Federal Court: Judge Greenlights Nationwide Class Action Lawsuit

April 16, 2020

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A federal judge ruled today that a nationwide class action lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can proceed, greenlighting a challenge to ICE’...

SPLC Action calls for release of people from Mississippi prisons following first COVID-19 death

April 16, 2020

JACKSON, Miss. -- A person incarcerated at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman has died of COVID-19 — the first known person in the state’s prison system to die from the virus. To reduce the spread of COVID-19 in...

SPLC Action Fund: Louisiana Senate Committee Action 'Hurtling the State into Wisconsin-like Election Circumstances'

April 15, 2020

BATON ROUGE, La. - Today, the Louisiana Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee deferred action on a Louisiana Secretary of State-drafted Emergency Election Plan for the upcoming presidential preference primary in July and...

Advocates: Changes Must be Made to Address Severe Restrictions on Access to Counsel under ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy

April 15, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild joined 46 other organizations today to urge the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Executive...

SPLC statement on legislation overturning Virginia’s prohibition on the removal of Confederate war memorials

April 14, 2020

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – On Saturday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed Senate Bill 183 and House Bill 1537 into law allowing for the removal, relocation, or contextualization of Confederate monuments starting July 1, 2020. The...

Lawsuit Filed Challenging Dangerous Plan to Move State’s COVID-Positive Incarcerated People to Angola

April 14, 2020

BATON ROUGE – Incarcerated people who test positive for COVID-19 in prisons and jails in around the state of Louisiana are being transferred to the Louisiana State Penitentiary (commonly called Angola) to be housed in Camp J...

“Many Will Die”: Federal Filing Demands Release of Immigrants Confined to Deadly Florida Detention Centers

April 13, 2020

MIAMI – Today, a coalition of organizations filed a federal class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Miami Division seeking the immediate release of all individuals in the custody of...

Advocates: Catastrophe Awaits Unless Action is Taken to Protect People Held at South Georgia Immigrant Detention Facilities Amid Pandemic

April 10, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta issued the following statement after the denial of their request for a temporary restraining order seeking the immediate...

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To make Press Center inquiries, email press@splcenter.org

To make Press Center inquiries, email press@splcenter.org

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