The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

The ability for workers to have a free and fair election process is essential to democracy, civil rights and labor advocates stressed as they testified in favor of the National Labor Relations Board’s recently proposed union election rules at a hearing last week.

Federal prosecutors will no longer charge crack cocaine defendants under a previous and more punitive law simply because their conduct predated the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), Attorney General Eric Holder announced in a memorandum last week. 

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is opposing legislation that would greatly undermine the ability of the newly-created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to prevent the kinds of abuses and behavior that led to the recent and ongoing financial crisis.

This week, Lexer Quamie, policy counsel at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, gave testimony in support of proposed changes that would streamline union representation elections governed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The "Budget Control Act of 2011" under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives would have a "devastating effect" on people of color, young children, students, older Americans, women, the jobless, and the uninsured, warned The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is opposing legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would drastically cut vital social programs and undermine the nation's economy.

Update 4/4/2012: The Sixth Circuit is currently rehearing en banc the constitutionality of Michigan's Proposal 2, which prohibits Michigan's public colleges and universities from granting "preferential treatment to ...  any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.”"

The 6^th Circuit Court of Appeals recently struck down (2-1)  Michigan's ban on equal opportunity programs in public higher education, employment, and contracting.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has proposed a new rule that is designed to simplify its secret ballot election process by which employees form a union. The NLRB is a federal agency that is responsible for holding elections so workers can vote on whether or not they want to join a particular union. 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) yesterday proposed a new rule that will expand opportunities for local community radio stations to broadcast on FM airwaves in urban areas.