The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights welcomed the Senate introduction last week of the Clean Ports Act to address growing labor and environmental concerns at many of the nation’s ports and nearby communities.

Senate Republicans, joined by two Democrats, last night blocked President Obama's proposed American Jobs Act from advancing to a full vote.

“The senators who voted to keep the Senate from debating the American Jobs Act should be ashamed of themselves," said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human rights, following the filibuster of the jobs bill.  "No issue is more pressing than the jobs crisis. Yet instead of the bold action that Americans are demanding, the Senate today delivered only more procedural gamesmanship."

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).

Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes et al. will limit the use of “class action” lawsuits and make it harder to bring large-scale discrimination cases, according to many civil and human rights groups.

In light of the recent AT&T vs. Concepcion Supreme Court case, Sen. Al Franken, D. Minn., Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D. Conn., and Rep. Hank Johnson, D. Ga., are expected to reintroduce the Arbitration Fairness Act (AFA) this week. The AFA would invalidate mandatory pre-dispute arbitration clauses in employment, consumer, or civil rights disputes.