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In a letter to the California Supreme Court, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said that implementation of the state's ban on equal opportunity to outlaw race- and gender-conscious programs and initiatives is unconstitutional because it creates "an unequal political structure based on race and gender."

"Ironically, by effectively disadvantaging racial minorities and women in the political process, without an evident compelling governmental reason for doing so, Section 31 seems to accomplish the very evil it purported to eliminate, viz. racial and gender discrimination," said Brown, in the letter.

Article 1, Section 31 is the section of the California Constitution added by Proposition 209, which was passed by the state's voters in 1996. It bans the consideration of race, gender, ethnicity, and national origin in "the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting." This includes hiring and the awarding of contracts by the California state government, by local governments, and by public schools, colleges, and universities. It also includes admissions at public colleges and universities.

The letter was filed after the court requested the state's opinion in Coral Construction v. City and County of San Francisco.  The case, before the court now, was filed by white-owned construction companies claiming that a San Francisco ordinance designed to increase minority- and women-owned businesses' access to city contracts violates Section 31.

Brown's letter (PDF).

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that requires certain states and localities with a history of voting discrimination to submit changes in voting procedures to the Department of Justice or a federal court before they can take effect.

The case involves a municipal utility district in Texas that says the preclearance provision is no longer necessary because the kind of discrimination that it was designed to combat no longer exists. The entire state of Texas is required to preclear voting changes.

A federal court rejected the municipality's suit last year, finding that Congress was well within its authority to reauthorize the preclearance requirement, which is regarded by many as the heart of the Voting Rights Act.

A new survey shows that nearly 60 percent of likely voters oppose mandatory arbitration clauses in employment and consumer contracts.

Mandatory arbitration clauses require a consumer or employee to agree to settle any disputes in arbitration, which is when a private third party reviews and settles the dispute. In doing so, individuals waive his or her right to sue, to participate in a class action lawsuit, or to appeal.  These clauses are often hidden in the fine print of contracts, such as cell phone and employment contracts.

The Fair Arbitration Now Coalition says that mandatory arbitration denies Americans their Seventh Amendment right to trial in civil disputes. According to the survey, many Americans are unaware that their right to a trial is taken from them when they sign contracts with mandatory arbitration clauses.

The surveyalso found that 59 percent of likely voters support the Arbitration Fairness Act. The Act specifies that mandatory arbitration clauses cannot be applied to employment, consumer, or franchise disputes. It also prohibits mandatory arbitration in disputes arising under any statute intended to protect civil rights.

The gap between the wages of men and women work for the federal government has declined over the last 20 years, according to a report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  In 2007, women made 89 cents for every dollar made by men in 2007, up from 72 cents in 1988.

The report, titled "Women's Pay: Gender Pay Gap in the Federal Workforce Narrows as Differences in Occupation, Education, and Experience Diminish," attributes the decline to the fact that men and women are now more likely to have the same level of education, the same years of experience working in the federal government, and are more likely to hold the same type of jobs at all levels of the federal workforce.

The report's release today comes as many Americans celebrate Equal Pay Day.

First celebrated in 1996, the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) created Equal Pay Day to call attention to disparities in salary between men and women.  Each year it is observed on a Tuesday in April because that is the day in which an average woman's earnings catch up with a man's from the previous week. This year, President Obama declared April 28 as National Equal Pay Day.

Despite the relative good news of the GAO report, in the general workforce, full-time working women currently make approximately 78 cents for every dollar that men make – and the gap is even greater for women of color.

Yesterday, LCCR sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the nomination of Tom Perez to be head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, saying that Perez is the "right person to take on the challenge" of returning the division to its former status as the nation's premier civil rights enforcement agency.  The letter was signed by more than 20 civil rights organizations.

The Civil Rights Division, created in 1957, is responsible for enforcing federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion, and national origin, such as the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, and the Americans With Disabilities Act.

However, in recent years the division has been plagued with controversy over political interference in its hiring policies and its inadequate enforcement of civil rights laws, leaving the division with little impact as a federal enforcement agency.

As the new assistant attorney general for civil rights, Perez will need to rebuild the morale of the division and renew its commitment to working to enforce the civil rights of all Americans.

Perez' confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee is tomorrow.

With the number of foreclosures still rising around the country, the Senate is expected to consider a bill this week that would help millions of struggling homeowners keep their homes.

The House of Representatives passed their version of the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act on March 5, but a provision that will give bankruptcy judges the ability to rework defaulted home mortgages on family homes to an affordable value has drawn stiff opposition from some senators and the banking and mortgage industries, preventing the Senate from voting on the bill more quickly.

Recent data on foreclosures shows that the crisis is far from over.  According to RealtyTrac, the number of foreclosure filings in the first quarter of 2009 increased nine percent from the previous quarter, and 24 percent from the first quarter of 2008.

More than three million homeowners are projected to default on their mortgages this year and more than two million are expected to lose their homes, according to Moody's Economy.

In honor of National Volunteer Week, LCCR would like to say thank you to everyone who volunteers — from those who volunteer to help others in their local communities, to those who volunteer for LCCR and our more than 200 member organizations to promote social justice across the nation and around the world.

National Volunteer Week, which lasts through Saturday, was established in 1974 by former President Nixon. This year's theme, "Celebrating People in Action," recognizes individuals who take action to solve problems in their communities.

If you are interested in volunteering in your community, check out the more than 200 LCCR coalition members — many have local chapters across the country. Or visit one of these websites that list volunteer opportunities and allow you to search by location: 1-800-volunteer.org, Idealist.org, Network for Good, or VolunteerMatch.

Delegates from more than 100 United Nations (U.N.) member nations met in Geneva, Switzerland, this week to discuss strategies for eradicating racism. The Durban Review Conference (Durban II) is a follow-up to the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which was held in 2001 in Durban, South Africa.

After months of contentious negotiations, the conference's organizing committee reached an agreement Tuesday on a final resolution outlining how U.N. member states can eradicate racism. The resolution, which represents a broad consensus on how to tackle racism and related forms of intolerance around the world, will be formally adopted by the full conference on Friday.

Recommendations in the resolution include:

• aggressively investigating hate crimes;
• affirming the right to organize for native-born and migrant workers alike;
• encouraging governments to embrace equal opportunity programs;
• calling for the ratification of other U.N. social justice treaties; and
• establishing independent national human rights bodies that would launch investigations, make policy proposals, and monitor compliance with human rights treaties and domestic law.

Sister Helen Prejean, one of the nation's leading advocates against the death penalty, celebrates her birthday this week.

Prejean became involved in death penalty issues more than 20 years ago after befriending a convicted rapist and murderer, Elmo Patrick Sonnier, who was on death row in Lousiana.  Prejean's met Sonnier through her order's community outreach program. During Sonnier's time on Louisiana's death row, Prejean visited him regularly and, in the course of those visits, began to learn more about how the state executed death row inmates.

Prejean's relationship with Sonnier became the first of many that she would have with death row inmates, which convinced her that the death penalty system is ineffective in administering justice.

"The death penalty, far from being a peripheral moral issue concerned about how we should punish a few terrible criminals, reveals the very soul of America.  It lays bare our deepest wounds as a nation -- our racism, our assault on poor people, and our ready instinct to use violence to solve social problems," said Prejean, during a speech at the Democratic Interfaith Gathering in Denver in August 2008.

Currently, 35 states allow capital punishment. In March, New Mexico repealed the death penalty, making it the second state to do so since a U.S. Supreme Court decision reinstated it in 1976. Five other states currently have pending legislation to abolish the death penalty.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day dedicated to remembering those that suffered, those that fought and those that died during over 60 years ago during the Holocaust.

The first Holocaust Remembrance Day took place in 1951 in Israel. They chose the 27th day of the month of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar to honor the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the largest revolt by Jews during the Holocaust.

People around the world observe the holiday in a variety of ways. Often, six candles are lighted to represent the six million people that died. Participants will sometimes read a list of names of victims to honor them.

In 1980, Congress established the Days of Remembrance, an annual weeklong commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust that includes the Holocaust Remembrance Day, and created the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington, D.C.  This year's theme, "Never Again: What You Do Matters" encourages people to reflect on the power of individuals to help solve injustice around the world.

President Obama and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel will speak at the museum's ceremony on April 23.