Home : Racial Justice : General

ACLU Letter to the Senate Urging A Yes Vote on H.R. 2831, The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 (04/21/2008)

ACLU Letter to Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Leadership in Support of Fair Pay Restoration Act (01/22/2008)
On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and its hundreds of thousands of members, activists, and fifty-three affiliates nationwide, we thank the Committee for holding a hearing on S. 1843, the “Fair Pay Restoration Act.” S. 1843, whose companion measure, H.R. 2831, passed the House of Representatives July 31, 2007, is necessary to ensure that victims of workplace discrimination receive effective remedies. We urge the Committee to support S. 1843 in order to fix a recent Supreme Court decision that undermines protections against discrimination in compensation that have been bedrock principles of civil rights laws for decades.

ACLU Letter to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Asking for its Return to its Historical Role (12/17/2007)
Thank you for your letter dated October 22, 2007 to Nadine Strossen seeking the ACLU’s input into your project planning process for fiscal year 2010. We commend your commitment to strengthen your work products by reaching out to a variety of external groups. However, we have grown increasingly concerned with the politicization of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights as demonstrated by a shift from its historic mission of vigorously investigating and reporting on civil rights abuses against minority and disenfranchised communities, to a new mission, which has called into question programs designed to ameliorate the historic effects of discrimination.

ACLU Backgrounder on English Only Policies in Congress (12/10/2007)
In 2006 the Senate took up an amendment to make English the national language in connection with the Comprehensive Immigration Reform (“CIR”) Act. The amendment, offered by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), passed the Senate by a vote of 62 to 35. This amendment was substantially diluted by the subsequent passage of an alternative amendment by Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) which declared English as the “common and unifying language of the United States.” Both amendments, largely symbolic in nature, died when the Senate failed to pass CIR. Similar amendments were introduced and passed in the 2007 version of the CIR, which also failed to become law. Nonetheless, the fact that nearly two-thirds of the Senate voted to make English the national language illustrates the intense, and unfortunately misguided, fervor surrounding the English-only debate.

Letter from the ACLU Asking the House Committee on Education and Labor to Oppose Any Discriminatory Amendment to the College Opportunity and Affordability Act that Could Force Accreditation of Universities that Engage in Discrimination (11/14/2007)

Written Testimony of Janet Caldero for Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Oversight Hearing Before the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the House Judiciary Committee (09/25/2007)

ACLU Letter to Vote Yes on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (07/26/2007)

Ensure a Full and Accurate Census Count (07/23/2007)

ACLU Letter to Senators Leahy and Specter Regarding the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (06/21/2007)

ACLU Letter to Representatives Nadler and Franks Exploring the Current State of Civil Rights Enforcement within the Department of Justice (03/22/2007)
Dear Representatives Nadler and Franks: On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, a non-partisan organization with hundreds of thousands of activists and members and 53 affiliates nationwide, we write to express our serious concerns about the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) enforcement of civil rights laws under the Bush Administration. The Department of Justice is the nation’s largest law enforcement agency and DOJ’s Civil Rights Division could be considered the nation’s largest civil rights legal organization. It should bring great power and resources to bear in defense of America’s most vulnerable. It wields the authority and resources of the federal government on difficult and complex issues and has helped bring about some of the greatest global advances for civil rights. However, DOJ’s record under the Bush administration shows it is not living up to this critical mission. The Civil Rights Division has avoided challenging cases that could yield significant rulings and advance civil rights.

LCCR Sign-On Letter to Members of Congress Urging Support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) (01/31/2007)

ACLU Letter to Senator Joseph Lieberman Regarding the Detention of Muslim Religious Leaders on November 20, 2006 At the Minneapolis Airport (11/28/2006)

ACLU Letter to the House Judiciary Committee Urging Support and Sponsorship of H.R. 435, the Equal Access to Justice Reform Act (05/22/2006)

ACLU of Louisiana Request for DOJ investigation of the "Gretna Bridge Incident" (02/17/2006)

ACLU Memo to Interested Persons Regarding Hurricane Katrina Relief Policies and Proposed Legislative Action (10/17/2005)

Sign On Letter to House of Representatives Urging Members to Vote Against the Class Action Fairness Act (02/23/2005)

Coalition Sign-On Letter Urging Exemption of Civil Rights and Wage Hour Cases from S. 5, the Class Action Fairness Act (02/02/2005)

ACLU Letter to the House Urging Support for H.R. 1155, the Civil Rights Tax Relief Act (12/15/2003)

ACLU Letter to the Senate Urging Support of S. 557, the Civil Rights Tax Relief Act (12/09/2003)

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) Coalition Letter Urging Senators to Oppose S. 274, the Class Action Fairness Act of 2003 (10/20/2003)