Blog of Rights
Deborah J.
Vagins

Deborah Vagins is senior legislative counsel at the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. She leads the Washington Legislative Office’s civil rights advocacy efforts and develops pro-active strategies on pending federal legislation and executive branch actions concerning racial justice, education, employment discrimination, voting rights, and disability rights. Vagins has been instrumental in advocating for major civil rights legislation, including the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 and the 2006 Voting Rights Act reauthorization, among others..

 

Before joining the ACLU in 2005, Vagins served as the acting deputy general counsel and senior attorney-advisor to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Prior to that, Vagins was an associate at Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, where she litigated high-profile nationwide civil rights class actions. She represented more than 1.5 million women from Wal-Mart in the largest Title VII employment discrimination class action in history. She was also an associate at Sidley & Austin in the civil, criminal and constitutional litigation practice group and founded the firm’s Committee for the Recruitment and Retention of Women. Earlier Vagins worked at EMILY’s List and clerked at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. Vagins graduated magna cum laude from the Washington College of Law at American University. She received her B.A. with distinction from Swarthmore College.

 


 

08/26/2010

Waiting for Equality

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:07pm

In the winter of 1916–1917, suffragists took their ongoing battle to our nation’s capital, pressing the newly re-elected President Woodrow Wilson to grant women the most fundamental of all American rights — the right to vote. Picketing outside of the White House, they asked President Wilson, almost a century ago: “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?”

The question was finally answered on August 26, 1920, and today, on Women’s Equality Day, we commemorate the 90th anniversary of the enactment of the 19th Amendment — the amendment that finally granted women the right to vote. On the anniversary of this watershed moment in American history, we are reminded that the struggle for women’s equality continues. Looking back on past victories highlights just how much more we must accomplish.

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06/30/2010

An Arcane, Destructive — and Still Legal — Practice

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:10pm

(Originally posted on Huffington Post.)

On June 29, 2010, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) introduced the "Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools Act," H.R. 5628. This bill would ban the use of corporal punishment in public schools and private schools that serve students receiving federal services. It is a huge step forward in the fight to make sure that our schools are places where students and teachers come to interact in positive ways that encourage students’ academic and personal growth. Spearheaded by the ACLU, dozens of organizations, individuals and coalitions representing hundreds of groups have joined a sign-on letter in support of this legislation and against this destructive practice.

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04/20/2010

Make Equal Pay Day Obsolete

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:12pm

Today, Equal Pay Day, marks how far women, on average, have to work into 2010 to be paid the same as men were paid in 2009. In other words, women have to work almost 16 months — nearly four months longer than men do — to make the same amount of money. This is because women who work full time still earn, on average, 77 cents for every dollar men earn. This day is an important reminder of this ongoing problem, but not one we want to continue "celebrating" year after year.

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04/16/2010

An Arcane And Destructive Practice

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:04pm

Yesterday, the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities conducted a hearing seeking to address the problems stemming from corporal punishment in public schools — the first Congressional hearing on this important issue since 1992. The ACLU and Human Rights Watch (HRW) submitted a statement for the record that discussed the ongoing corporal punishment of American public school children and its impact on their educational success.

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01/29/2010

A Milestone with Miles to Go

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:24pm

(Originally posted on Huffington Post.)

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill signed into law by President Obama. This critical law fixed a 2007 Supreme Court decision that sharply limited workers' opportunities to challenge wage discrimination, and undermined civil rights law that had been in place for decades. The Ledbetter Act restored the fundamentally just principle that an employee should have her day in court as long as an employer continues to discriminate against her. Enactment of this law was a decisive victory for pay equity, and the anniversary of its signing is an important milestone. The Ledbetter Act, however, merely restored the right to get into court that women had previously held for years.

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12/03/2009
Corporal Punishment in Schools

Teach (and Treat) Our Children Well

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:19pm

(Originally posted on Huffington Post.)

As a society, we adhere to the basic premise that, in the proper setting, children will learn what they are taught. And it follows that in learning to become positive and involved adults, children need to be encouraged and supported in their school environments.

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11/19/2009

Gay Marriage in N.J.: Which Side of History Will You Be On?

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:55pm

(Originally posted in the New Jersey Star-Ledger.)

As our state legislature gears up to vote on marriage equality in the lame-duck session, we have one question for lawmakers: Which side of history do you want to be on?

A state commission last year found that gay and lesbian families suffer because civil unions are not equal to marriages. Many people in the state fail to understand that civil unions do not keep the promise to same-sex couples that their rights will be the same as married couples in areas like health care, taxes, retirement and of course social recognition. Every aspect of life is affected.

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11/16/2009
DADT

Corzine on My Mind

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:00am

(Originally posted on Huffington Post.)

All of America watched New Jersey's gubernatorial election. Some interpreted the result as a referendum on Barack Obama's leadership, but everyone voting in our state understood that the Democrat on the ticket was Jon Corzine, and Corzine alone, not a stand-in for our president.

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08/04/2009

The Democracy Restoration Act — Restoring a Civil Right Denied

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:54pm

(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)

As the Supreme Court has indicated, "[n]o right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined." Unfortunately, in America today, millions of citizens work, pay taxes, live in our communities and bring up families, yet they are without a voice. According to a 2008 ACLU/Brennan Center report, an estimated 5.3 million citizens cannot vote as a result of a felony conviction, and nearly 4 million of those citizens have been released from prison and are living and working in the community.

Worse still, felony disfranchisement laws are rooted in the Jim Crow era and were intended to bar minorities from voting. The impact of these laws continues today. Nationwide, 13 percent of African American men have lost the right to vote — a rate seven times the national average. Latino citizens are also disproportionately disfranchised because they are over-represented in the criminal justice system. In turn, this has impacted the families of those who are disfranchised and the communities in which they reside by reducing their collective political voice.

Confusion Surrounding State Laws

States have vastly different approaches to allowing those with criminal convictions to vote, which often compound the problems further. For example, some states disfranchise some, but not all, citizens with criminal convictions, while others allow voting after a sentence is completed or after release from prison. Two states, Virginia and Kentucky, permanently disfranchise citizens with felony convictions unless the state approves individual rights restoration; two states, Maine and Vermont, allow all persons with felony convictions to vote, even while incarcerated; all other states fall somewhere in between.

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07/14/2009

Mayor Cory Booker: Please See Me After Class

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:51pm

(Originally posted on Huffington Post.)

In his six months in office, President Obama has disappointed social justice advocates with his positions on issues like gay rights, warrantless wiretapping and, most recently, indefinite detention. We all want to see our president succeed; he generates hope and excitement, and embodies long-awaited change. But we also feel conflicted – while we're sympathetic to the many obstacles he faces to creating meaningful change, the president still needs a resolute front to hold his feet to the fire.

Newark, N.J., a microcosm of Obama’s plight, is a petri dish of a place with a visionary leader who inspires hope. When Mayor Cory Booker took office three years ago, he promised long-suffering Newarkers that he would capitalize on untapped resources, restore public trust in government and honor the civil liberties he has always held close to his heart. He also implored us to hold him accountable, knowing that government depends on citizens to keep it in line.

Mayor Booker has a full plate: reducing crime, confronting poverty and educating students whose schools have for too long failed them. But, in Newark, every plate needs a big scoop of civil liberties. After all, few cities have as extensive histories of civil liberties abuses against its citizens — the 1967 rebellion and riots were fueled in large part by police brutality. The mayor personally experienced violations of free speech and other rights under the prior leadership of the city, as the acclaimed film Street Fight documented.

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