The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

The Rights Working Group recently launched a campaign, "Face the Truth," to eliminate racial and religious profiling. 

Profiling is the exclusive reliance on racial, religious, or ethnic characteristics to determine the likelihood that a person committed an act or crime. While profiling is most associated with African Americans, profiling targets people of many races, religions, and ethnicities, such as Arab and Muslim Americans following the September 11 terrorist attacks, Latinos in immigration enforcement, and the Asian Americans following World War II. 

The "Face the Truth" campaign's goals include: urging the Department of Justice to revise guidelines regarding profiling loopholes in national security and enforcement, ending immigration enforcement programs that often profile based on race, and pushing Congress to pass the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA).  ERPA would prohibit all law enforcement agencies from racial profiling, require agencies to collect data on the number of stops, searches, and arrests by race and gender, and allow victims of racial profiling to sue local, state or federal authorities.  Congress is expected to introduce ERPA later this session. 

The campaign will also emphasize the ineffective and illegal nature of profiling, promote communication amongst targeted communities to better fight profiling, and building stronger relationships between law enforcement and their communities.

In this controversial memoir, John Perkins offers an insider's perspective on the harsh and unequal economic relations between the U.S. and many Latin American countries created over the past quarter century. Perkins documents his role in manipulating foreign governments into accepting unsustainable loans that would eventually bankrupt their country and people.

This book is a powerful example of the true costs of modern globalization, and how the rich continue to get richer at the expense of the poor.

The Civil Rights Book Club aims to provide context and provoke discussion about today's top social justice concerns. Each week, we profile a book, a movie, or other media that represent the diversity of the contemporary social justice movement. You can help support The Leadership Conference by purchasing Book Club selections through the Amazon.com link on our website.

Witnesses at yesterday's House Education and Labor Committee hearing on the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) reaffirmed the need for the passage of this important civil rights legislation.

ENDA would outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.  The bill is modeled after existing laws that protect workers from discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin, age, and disability.

The committee heard from a wide array of witnesses, including Vandy Beth Glenn whose testimony highlighted the devastating consequences of discrimination.  Glenn was a dedicated employee of the Georgia State Assembly, but when her employer found out that she was completing a gender transition, she was promptly dismissed.

"My editorial skills had not changed. My work ethic had not changed – I was still ready and willing to burn the midnight oil with my colleagues, making sure that every bill was letter-perfect. My commitment to the General Assembly, to its leaders...The only thing that changed was my gender – and because of that, the legislature I'd worked so hard for no longer had any use for my skills," Glenn said.

A broad coalition of civil rights groups, including the Alliance for Justice, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and People For the American Way, is urging senators to eliminate the confirmation backlog of judicial and executive branch nominees.

A letter sent today to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R. Ky., states: "The obstruction of many of President Obama's nominees through filibuster threats and anonymous 'holds' is hindering the important work of our judicial and executive branches of government and threatening any prospect of bipartisan cooperation on many pressing national issues important to all Americans." Forty-five groups signed the letter.

Since taking office in January, President Obama has nominated 18 people to serve as judges on the federal courts.  Only one has been confirmed by the Senate.  In addition, the nominations of Tom Perez to head the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and Dawn Johnsen to head the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel are still pending.  Johnsen's nomination has been pending since the Senate Judiciary Committee approved it in March.

Given that the nation is facing major challenges like an economic recession, the groups argue that blocking these important nominations "will poison the political atmosphere, needlessly heighten partisan tensions, and make it far more difficult for the federal government to serve the public interest in any respect."

The law, which is the most restrictive voter ID law in the United States, requires Indiana voters to present a government-issued photo ID, such as a state driver's ID or a U.S. passport, to cast a ballot. Provisional ballots are available to voters who don't bring a photo ID to the poll, but a provisional ballot will be counted only after the voter provides proof of identity at the local county election office within 10 days of the election.

In addition, driver's licenses and state-issued IDs must be renewed periodically, and people must re-register to vote whenever they move or change their name or the ID is not valid for voting.

A recent study conducted by the Washington Institute for Ethnicity and Race found that the highest percentages of eligible Indiana voters without a valid photo ID were minorities, seniors, young people, less-educated people, and low-income people.   Proponents of voter ID laws say that the laws are necessary to prevent voter fraud.  However, the study found no instances of voter fraud in Indiana.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the law does not violate the U.S. Constitution.  The appeals court looked at a different question – whether the law violated the Indiana state constitution.  Even though the law does not violate federal law, it does violate state law.  The state will likely seek a stay of the appellate court decision, delaying action until it comes under review by the Indiana State Supreme Court.

According to a recent report in the Des Moines Register, the federal Secure Communities program may not be achieving the U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) original objective – to detain violent felons and fugitives.

Sixty-seven percent of those detained under the program in Iowa had no previous criminal offenses, while the number of non-fugitives arrested by the agency nearly doubled over the last three years. ICE announced the Secure Communities program in March of 2008.  The plan was designed to help pursue the deportation of immigrants convicted of high-level felonies. The program allows local law enforcement to communicate with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and verify the immigration status of arrestees.

Civil rights and immigrants' rights groups are concerned that the program gives local and state authorities license to unfairly target innocent people along ethnic lines without adequately address local communities concerns about violent felons and fugitives.  The National Immigration Law Center expressed apprehension (PDF) due to the absence of any requirements for audits and oversight, the inaccuracy of DHS databases, and the lack of redress for those who have been wrongly identified.

Since the program's creation, ICE has not enacted regulations to curb racial profiling or the potential for law enforcement to make arrests solely as a pretext for checking an individual's immigration status. 

The health insurance industry's widespread use of "pre-existing conditions" is unfair and discriminatory.  These conditions are often illnesses, injuries, or diseases that will not be covered under certain health insurance plans, or in some cases, can prevent a person from getting health insurance at all.

Recently, the National Women's Law Center issued a report on just how broadly health insurance companies define "pre-existing condition" (PDF) to avoid paying for people's treatment and how those practices discriminate against women.  Currently, in eight states and the District of Columbia being a victim of domestic abuse qualifies as having a pre-existing condition, allowing insurers to deny coverage to women who have been abused in the past. 

Both versions of the health reform bills currently being considered in Congress would ban insurance companies from using pre-existing conditions to deny coverage, guaranteeing that this egregious practice would be stopped.

"It is unconscionable that health insurance companies would deny coverage to a woman who has been the victim of domestic violence.  This extraordinary and discriminatory practice is just one more example of how badly broken the system is and why Congress must pass health care reform legislation this fall," said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of LCCR.

DC Vote has selected LCCR President Wade Henderson and LCCR Executive Vice President Nancy Zirkin as recipients of its 2009 Champions of Democracy Award for their commitment to achieving full democracy for the District of Columbia.

In announcing the award, DC Vote Executive Director Ilir Zherka said Zirkin and Henderson's "exemplary dedication to civil and human rights issues is apparent through their tireless work to pass D.C. voting rights legislation. They have been loyal champions of this cause, and we are extremely appreciative of their efforts." 

Henderson and Zirkin will be honored with fellow awardees Rep. John Conyers, D. Mich., and Alkridge Real Estate at the Champions of Democracy Awards Dinner on October 13 in Washington, D.C. 

Champions of Democracy are selected for "their dedication to fulfilling the promise of democracy and for the many ways they celebrate the rich heritage and vibrant communities of Washington, D.C."

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In a column published in today's Politico, LCCR President and CEO Wade Henderson takes on the "shouting heads" in the media for stirring up faux controversies around Obama administration officials Mark Lloyd, Cass Sunstein, John Holdren, Carol Browner, and Van Jones.  Jones recently resigned from his position as special advisor for green jobs in the administration because of such controversies.

"In a more sensible world, these media firestorms would be doused by the cold water of common sense," Henderson said. "Far from being bomb throwers, Browner was the longest-serving Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Sunstein is a professor at Harvard Law School, Holdren has taught at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Lloyd was an attorney at a leading communications law firm and Jones authored a best-selling book about how to create high-skill, high-wage jobs in environmentally friendly industries."

Henderson also said that the media controversies have nothing to do with Obama's appointees, who are all distinguished public servants, and everything to do with Obama himself. 

"While his adversaries have every right to criticize his policies and offer alternatives of his own, the nation needs more constructive conservatives like the late Jack Kemp and fewer bombastic broadcasters like Glenn Beck," Henderson said.