Press Release

WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference Education Fund released its policy brief, “Gainful Employment: A Civil Rights Perspective,” today describing the exploitation of Black and Latino students by for-profit colleges and urging the Department of Education to enforce the Higher Education Act and protect students. Twenty-one civil rights, consumer lending, and education groups signed onto the brief, demanding Secretary DeVos propose a new rule to advance equity and protect students’ civil rights.

WASHINGTON – Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement on the passing of Congressman Elijah Cummings, Chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee:

WASHINGTON – Lena Zwarensteyn, fair courts campaign director at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement on the confirmation of David Novak (Eastern District of Virginia), who refused to affirm that Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided:

WASHINGTON – As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to consider the troubling judicial nomination of anti-immigrant hardliner Steven Menashi to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 28 immigrant rights groups are joining their voices to urge the committee to stop his confirmation. Throughout his career, Menashi, a Republican loyalist, has worked to erode critical rights and legal protections of immigrant communities and people of color. While serving in the White House Counsel’s Office and at the Education Department, he exhibited alarming tendencies that, if still present while serving on the bench, would deny countless individuals a fair day in court during the remainder of his career.

WASHINGTON – Lynda Garcia, policing campaign director of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement after the first Community Police Oversight Board (CPOB) meeting in Dallas this week. The Dallas Police Department and CPOB convened after the murder of Joshua Brown, a key witness in the murder trial of former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger:

WASHINGTON – In an opinion piece in Politico, Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, criticizes Facebook’s move to exempt politicians’ speech from its community standards. Gupta examines how the new policy will allow politicians free rein to spread misinformation and racially divisive content.

WASHINGTON – A coalition of civil rights and social justice organizations led by the national Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court urging that the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is unlawful.

WASHINGTON – Civil rights leaders urged the Supreme Court to preserve a civil rights statute that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and ethnicity when making and enforcing contracts. The law applies to all private and public actors and prohibits retaliation. Known as Section 1981, it has been one of the cornerstones of the oldest and most storied pieces of civil rights laws for over 150 years - the Civil Rights Act of 1866.