“We’re potentially telling thousands of citizens that their votes don’t matter and might not be counted,” said our Senior Counsel Ami Gandhi.
Read MoreWhat failed to happen in D.C. could still happen closer to home.
Read More“The Voting Rights Act protects Black voters’ right to an equal opportunity to elect candidates of choice. This ruling undermines that right,” said Ami Gandhi, senior counsel at Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.
Read MoreLast week, our attorneys went to federal court to challenge Illinois lawmakers who unlawfully cracked apart the Black community of the East St. Louis area during redistricting.
Read More“It’s just something that was aligned with my values,” Johnson said. “It was a great experience to be able to use my legal training to contribute to that work.”
Read MoreAttorneys at Chicago Lawyers’ Committee this week helped submit a legal challenge on behalf of the Pembroke Environmental Justice Coalition (PEJC), a grassroots coalition trying to halt plans for a new gas pipeline in the historic Black farming community of Pembroke Township, Illinois.
Read MoreLast week, the East St. Louis Branch NAACP, the Illinois State Conference of the NAACP, and United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) submitted our proposed revisions to a federal judge - fixes that would cure the legal violations and keep the geographically compact and politically cohesive Black community of the East St. Louis area together.
Read MoreSome lawmakers and election officials have mistakenly argued that the Illinois constitution does not allow for voting in prison. To assess the constitutionality of Senate Bill 828, we worked with the law firm of Dechert LLP to produce a legal memo laying out our legal findings.
Read MoreThe Illinois legislature’s S.B. 927 redistricting plan, creates unconstitutional racially gerrymandered districts for the Illinois House of Representatives, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday by Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and pro-bono counsel Cooley LLP. The challenged redistricting plan breaks up the geographically compact and politically cohesive Black community of East St. Louis.
Read MoreWhile the April 2021 updated ordinance strengthened several key parts of the ARO, there’s still a lot of work to be done to ensure that Chicagoans of color have access to these affordable units.
Read MoreOur preliminary analysis suggests that there are multiple examples where communities of color have been “cracked,” breaking our communities apart into multiple House or Senate districts. The Indiana legislature must redraw such districts to keep communities of color together, or they risk violating the federal Voting Rights Act.
Read MoreAcross the country, Black and multi-racial students are going to court and claiming their right to classroom safety and equal education. Chicago Lawyers’ Committee recently added our legal muscle to these battles by signing on in support of “friend of the court” amicus curiae briefs in two ongoing racial discrimination cases.
Read MoreAfter more than three years of grassroots community organizing, state legislators this month passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, one of the most ambitious and equitable clean energy laws in the nation.
Read MoreChicago’s redistricting process is just beginning now, and Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights has created a handout with basic information about the process in collaboration with the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition and the South Asian American Policy and Research Institute (SAAPRI).
Read MoreDeveloped by community groups and co-sponsored by 14 City Council members, the Water for All ordinance would make sure every Chicago household can access safe and affordable water.
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