Access to Justice

MALDEF AND ADVANCING JUSTICE SUE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION, CHALLENGING ADDITION OF CITIZENSHIP QUESTION TO 2020 CENSUS

LOS ANGELES – The Trump administration’s eleventh-hour decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census violates the U.S. Constitution because it is racially discriminatory and could result in a severe undercount of minorities, according to a federal lawsuit filed today by nearly two dozen groups and individuals.

CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS’ STATEMENT ON COURT RULING BLOCKING SOUTH TEXAS COUNTY’S RESTRICTIONS ON POLITICAL SPEECH

San Antonio, TX – A federal court has granted a request by MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) and TCRP (Texas Civil Rights Project) to temporarily block a 2018 rule adopted by the Commissioners Court of Starr County that prohibits “electioneering” during voting periods on properties owned or operated by the county.

MALDEF SUES TO ENFORCE TRANSPARENCY IN ILLINOIS GOVERNOR BRUCE RAUNER’S APPOINTMENTS TO STATE BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS

CHICAGO, IL – Late last week, MALDEF filed a lawsuit against Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner asking the court to order the Governor to comply with the Illinois Gubernatorial Boards and Commissions Act (“the Act”). The Act requires Governor Rauner to publish information about the ethnicity, gender and disability status of applicants and appointees to state boards and commissions. The Governor was required to publish his first report on October 1, 2015, but failed to do so.

FEDERAL JUDGE RULES THAT LAWSUIT UNDER CALIFORNIA TRUST ACT MUST BE HEARD IN STATE COURT

LOS ANGELES, CA – Late Monday, United States District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald granted Plaintiffs’ motion to remand a lawsuit for violation of the California TRUST Act back to State Superior Court in Los Angeles. MALDEF, together with co-counsel from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the University of California at Irvine School of Law, filed the action in state court on October 8, 2014.