Following the death of a transgender inmate, a family has been awarded one of the largest wrongful death settlements in the history of Georgia’s prison system. The $2.2 million civil settlement was granted to the family of a woman who had a history of mental illness and hung herself while in solitary...
In Oklahoma, a man cleared from murder charges who served 28 years behind bars is entitled to just $6,250 for each year that he was wrongfully incarcerated. Oklahoma state law awards a maximum of $175,000 to individuals who are wrongfully convicted and are then exonerated.
While thirty-five states,...
In a 2019 landmark decision, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia awarded over $700,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees to an African American woman threatened and harassed on social media by white supremacists. Filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, pro bono...
The second-half of 2019 brought a number of significant decisions impacting plaintiffs who had their civil rights violated. In July of 2019, the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued a decision surrounding juvenile resentencing. The ruling clarified that, when resentencing men and women...
In 2019, California Governor Newsom signed bill AB-51 into law. The new law effectively allowed employees to bring employment-related claims to court instead of mandated arbitration. One year later, when certain business groups attempted to challenge the law, U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller...
In a recent Illinois Appellate Court decision, Jackie Wilson’s 1982 conviction of armed robbery and murder was overturned, granting him a new trial. After what resulted in the “biggest manhunt in Chicago’s history,” Wilson maintained that two police detectives who interrogated him, beat and tortured...
Ruling that the Chicago Police Department had failed to comply with the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, Cook County Judge Alison Conlon has given the Department until the end of 2020 to hand over nearly a half-century’s worth of documents. The documents—unreleased files pertaining to allegations...
In May 2019, the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office got the green light to create a civil rights division after the Connecticut House of Representatives approved the initiative in an 82-63 vote. Attorney General William Tong, whose election platform focused heavily on the establishment of the...
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted women in the workforce who are managing careers along with new realities at home.
Following the shut-down of many schools and childcare centers across the country, families with infants and school-aged children were sent scrambling to provide child...
Pregnancy Justice has filed a lawsuit against an Alabama jail alleging mistreatment of a pregnant detainee which put mother and baby at serious risk. The advocacy group further exposes years of neglect and civil rights violations at the facility.
In a new civil rights lawsuit filed by advocacy...
If you are arrested and sent to jail, you deserve fair and safe treatment. This is a constitutional right. However, prisoner mistreatment and harm does occur in prison systems across the country. When you suffer mistreatment or injury in jail, it is important to explore your legal rights.
Can...
In a tremendous victory for many plaintiffs, the U.S. House voted to pass legislation known as the FAIR Act geared towards ending forced arbitration for victims of civil rights violations and injustice. After years of efforts, this is a huge step forward for consumers, workers, small businesses,...
More than 30 years after the murder conviction of Jack Sagin, he was exonerated and released from prison in October 2019. Using evidence based on testimony from a jailhouse informant, a jury found Sagin guilty of murdering a 40-year old California woman in 1986. Sagin won the right to conduct...
In early December 2019, a $450,000 verdict was awarded to a mental health patient who contended he was beaten by security therapy aids at Chester Mental Health Center in Chester, Illinois. According to court documents, 20-year old Christopher Novus Davis was pulled to the ground, choked, and punched,...
The Supreme Court recently reversed the 2010 conviction of 49-year old Curtis Flowers, ruling that prosecutors wrongfully excluded African-Americans from the jury during Flowers’ last trial. Flowers was imprisoned for 22 years following his arrest relating to a quadruple murder in 1996. He was...
In early December 2019, the House of Representatives passed a new bill meant to strengthen the activities of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Office within the Homeland Security Department. Under the legislation, civil rights and civil liberties officers would have the ability to access relevant...
Dirty Linen: How Women Sued the Reader's Digest and Changed History, by Elaine Auerbach
Dirty Linen is an everywoman manifesto and a gentle tutorial on fundamental civil rights activism by the working mom next door. Set in Westchester County, New York in the 1970’s, Reader’s Digestwas, at the...
When George Floyd, an African-American man, was killed by a police officer during an arrest in Minneapolis, MN in May 2020, it set off a firestorm of protests. People objecting to the circumstances of his death, and to police violence against black people in general, organized protests across...
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has upheld an injunction barring the U.S. Air Force from discharging two HIV-positive airmen.
The lawsuit stems from a Defense Department policy that forbids HIV-positive service members from deploying outside the United States without...
While detained at the Prairieland Detention Center (PDC) in Alvarado, TX in 2018, Armenian immigrant Gourgen Mirimanian died in what his family believes was a cover-up by LaSalle Corrections, the private prison company that oversees the detention center. Mirimanian entered Immigration and Customs...
