civil rights

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Four former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd's civil rights  are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court Tuesday at a hearing that could also address some pretrial motions. A federal grand jury indicted Derek... Read More

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Republican states that have passed increasingly tough abortion restrictions only to see them blocked by the federal courts have a new template in an unusually written Texas law that represents the most far-reaching curb on... Read More

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Education will invoke its civil rights enforcement authority to prevent states from imposing universal bans on wearing face masks in classrooms, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said on Wednesday. The decision represents a dramatic escalation of... Read More

The hashtag “#freebritney” has recently been flooding social media channels after the pop sensation claimed her 2008 court-mandated conservatorship withheld her from removing her intrauterine device, hindering her ability to reproduce, an issue which has been at the heart of... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an abortion case next term that could dramatically alter abortion jurisprudence. In 2018, Mississippi enacted a law that banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. It was one of a wave... Read More

When Steven Reed was elected the first Black mayor of Montgomery, Ala., he came with an ambitious plan to develop the city and to move towards equity.  He viewed his election as a mandate for equity that could outline a... Read More

WASHINGTON - Thirty years ago today, on March 3, 1991, a Los Angeles motorist named Rodney King was severely beaten by four White police officers wielding metal batons, an event that would ultimately seal his place in recent civil rights history.  This... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-led House passed a bill Thursday that would enshrine LGBTQ protections in the nation's labor and civil rights laws, a top priority of President Joe Biden, though the legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate.The... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Witnesses at a congressional hearing Wednesday said the African American community should receive reparations for the inequality and bigotry that started with slavery but continues now. They were speaking in support of a recently reintroduced bill that would... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — National lawmakers introduced a joint resolution Wednesday aimed at striking language from the U.S. Constitution that enshrines a form of slavery in America’s foundational documents. The resolution, spearheaded and supported by Democratic members of the House... Read More

WASHINGTON — Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of NAACP, was the special guest this week at the Meridian International Center, a non-partisan center for diplomacy and global leadership. He shared his perspective on recent general election results including their impact... Read More

WASHINGTON — Election advocacy groups are preparing for the possibility of voter intimidation at the polls Tuesday, although weeks of early voting remained mostly peaceful despite the country's unsettled mood in a year with simmering partisan and sometimes violent conflicts on... Read More

ATLANTA (AP) — John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress, has... Read More

The city of Berkeley in Northern California will become the first U.S. city to remove police from traffic stops in an effort to reduce racial profiling and avoid deadly run-ins between law enforcement and Black drivers. On Wednesday morning, the... Read More

African American civil rights leaders spoke out in support Wednesday of a bill pending in Congress that would set national standards for police behavior. It also would ban chokeholds, reduce legal immunity for police misconduct and create a national database... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Barack Obama is taking on an increasingly public role as the nation confronts a confluence of historic crises that has exposed deep racial and socioeconomic inequalities in America and reshaped the November election. In doing... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr on Monday ordered federal prosecutors across the U.S. to identify coronavirus-related restrictions from state and local governments “that could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens.” The memo to... Read More

The House, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion, passed legislation that would classify lynching as a federal hate crime. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., passed on a vote of 410-4. The Act is named for... Read More

WASHINGTON - Federal and state officials are hurrying to figure out a long-term quarantine procedure for passengers arriving at U.S. airports who potentially carry the deadly coronavirus without violating their rights. As the epidemic grows, they are considering quarantine within... Read More

RICHMOND, Va. — Advocates for people who identify as LGBTQ cheered Thursday as Virginia’s General Assembly passed comprehensive legislation protecting them from discrimination in housing, employment and public spaces. “This is a historic day and bright moment for the whole... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court meets Friday to consider for the first time whether the Constitution gives homeless people a right to sleep on the sidewalk. The justices are weighing an appeal of a much-disputed ruling by the 9th Circuit... Read More

U.S. House committee leaders this week called for airlines to do more to prevent mishandling of wheelchairs and scooters of passengers with disabilities, and sought more information on airlines’ policies and procedures. In a letter to industry group Airlines for... Read More

WASHINGTON - The cases came from New York, Georgia and Michigan. In one, Donald Zarda, a Long Island man who taught skydiving for 15 years, was fired by his employer, Altitude Express, when a female customer complained that he had... Read More

A ruling last week by Maryland’s highest court is likely to help redefine the criminal law of marijuana possession as states nationwide search for new legal standards. A unanimous Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that police who smell marijuana can... Read More

WASHINGTON -- The murder conviction and death sentence of a black inmate in Mississippi cannot stand because the trial court failed to recognize a prosecutors efforts to keep blacks off the jury was due at least in part to discriminatory... Read More

Eight House Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues Friday in voting in favor of legislation banning discrimination against members of the LGBT community. H.R. 5, also known as The Equality Act, was jointly introduced in both the House and the Senate... Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to take up the question of whether provisions of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting employment discrimination applies to LGBT individuals. The justices said they would hear Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia,... Read More