The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Table of Contents

• Introduction

Executive Branch

• Looking Forward to New Blood in Washington
• Interview with Bob Edgar

On the Hill

• The Americans With Disabilities Act, Act Two
• As Home Foreclosures Climb, Efforts to Help Troubled Homeowners Continue
• The Year in Judicial and Executive Nominations
• Advocating for Federal Leadership on Education
• Facing New Challenges with the 2010 Census
• Modernizing the Federal Poverty Measure
• Piecemeal Legislation, Raids Take Place of Immigration Overhaul
• Below the Surface
• Interview with Kathryn Kolbert

In the Courts

• Wrapping up the Supreme Court’s 2007-2008 Term

In the States

• Colorado: Battleground for More Than Just the Presidency.
• Interview with Lilly Ledbetter

Leadership Conference Activities

• Preventing a Digital TV Divide
• Examining the State of Fair Housing in the 21st Century
• Bringing Diverse Communities Together
• 32nd Annual Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner
• Interview with John Payton

Below the Surface

In this new feature of the Civil Rights Monitor, we highlight a few issues that were either emerging for the civil rights community this year or were major issues in years past but flew a little below the radar this year.  We anticipate that these issues will become more prominent in 2009 and will require the attention and focus of the civil rights community. 

Arbitration

Employers often require workers, as a condition of hire, to agree to submit workplace complaints to an arbitrator instead of a judge and jury.  While arbitration can sometimes be a good alternative, workers are pushed into arbitration without any real choice, often leaving the selection of the arbitrator and the procedural rules for the arbitration in the hands of the employer.

The Arbitration Fairness Act (AFA) – approved by the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law on July 15 – will ban pre-dispute mandatory arbitration clauses in employment and other contracts.  Because the imposition of these potentially unfair tribunals on workers undermines workplace rights, civil rights groups have strongly supported the AFA.  But the business community has rallied against it, and much work remains to get it passed by the full House and Senate in 2009.

--Paul Edenfield

Confrontation over REAL ID Act Delayed but not Averted

Embroiled in controversy since it was introduced in 2005, civil rights groups remain hopeful that the REAL ID Act will never see the light of day.

Supposedly meant to bolster airline security, the law required states, by May 2008, to drastically overhaul the way they issue ID cards.  While civil rights groups strongly oppose the law based on discrimination and privacy concerns, state government opposition has been even more vocal, based on staggering cost estimates.  To avoid an unusual federal-state confrontation, the Department of Homeland Security pushed off the deadline to 2013.

Given the additional time, Congress did not revisit the law in 2008.  To date, however, 11 states have enacted laws that bar themselves from complying.  Other states, thanks to recent budget crises, may not even have the money to comply.  As a result, efforts to repeal the law could easily regain momentum in the next several years.

For more information on the REAL ID Act, visit the American Civil Liberties Union's special website, RealNightmare.org.

--Rob Randhava