We condemn Supreme Court ruling allowing anti-LGBTQI+ discrimination  

In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling allowing anti-LGBTQI+ discrimination, we issued a response that states in part:

Today, in its latest display of its political activism, the Supreme Court sanctioned discrimination by giving businesses that engage in "expressive conduct" a license to deny services to LGBTQI+ people. We have known for a long time that in the eyes of the Court, there are only two Constitutional rights that matter: the First Amendment right to religious expression and the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Nonetheless, today’s decision was crushing. 

Together with [the] decision invalidating affirmative action, this ruling lays bare the values of this Court. In six justices’ view, the Constitution says it is just fine for a business to exclude someone on the basis of their protected status (LGBTQI+), but it is unconstitutional for a university to include someone on the basis of their protected status (race). This is bigotry masquerading as law.

Read the full statement on our website.

Immigrant rights advocates seek justice in family separation case involving toddler 

Last week, a federal district court heard the government’s motion to dismiss D.J.C.V. v. United States of America, a case on behalf of D.J.C.V., a then two-year-old child, and his father, Mr. C., asylum seekers from Honduras. The Biden administration is seeking to dismiss the case, arguing that Trump’s immigration authorities had the right to separate the family without inquiry into the best interests of the child.

In 2018, D.J.C.V., was sent to a New York City federal detention center and separated from his father for more than five months before they were reunited. The plaintiffs ask that the court not dismiss the case and allow Mr. C and his son to seek damages for suffering inflicted on them and for alleged violations of the U.S. Constitution and international law.

“The Biden administration is attempting to defend in court what all of us know to be indefensible in real life -- the separation and intentional torment of an anguished father and his infant son, which was undertaken as part of a xenophobic policy to punish and deter deeply vulnerable humans from seeking asylum protections here. This mass policy effectively constituted a crime against humanity under international law, as well as violations of U.S. law…”

- Baher Azmy, Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights

Read the full statement on our website.

SATURDAY: When You’re Called a Terrorist: How Domestic Terrorism Laws Target Protestors and Activists, online and live in Chicago 

Join us and NDN Collective, Community Movement Builders, and the Adalah Justice Project, for a panel discussion exploring how domestic terrorism laws target people challenging police violence, environmental destruction, and militarism. The “domestic terrorism” label is wielded against communities of color, even though the laws were ostensibly to quell white supremacist violence. This panel will be in person at the Netroots Nation conference in Chicago and livestreamed on Saturday, July 15, at 2:45 p.m. CT / 3:45 p.m. ET. You can attend or stream the session by purchasing a ticket on the Netroots Nation website. 

Speakers include our Senior Staff Attorney Diala Shamas, Community Movement Builders founder Kamau Franklin, NDN Collective President & CEO Nick Tilsen, and Jerusalem Fund Executive Director Jehad Abusalim. Adalah Justice Project Director Sandra Tamari will moderate. 

View more info about the event on our website.

WATCH: #WeStandWithFatima, powerful, short video in defense of CUNY Law class-elected speaker 

We encourage you to watch and share this powerful video in defense of CUNY Law class-elected speaker Fatima, entitled #WeStandWithFatima, available on Youtube. This video was created by CUNY for Palestine and Within Our Lifetime and features a coalition of 34 legal scholars, professors, organizers, and artists, alongside CUNY students and workers. It includes a rereading of Fatima’s inspiring commencement address, delivered collectively by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Robin D.G. Kelley, Noura Erakat, Judith Butler, Corey Robin, Dave Zirin, Ijeoma Oluo, our Deputy Legal Director Maria LaHood, among others. 

Fatima was subjected to a coordinated smear campaign and accused by CUNY’s Board of Trustees of committing “hate speech” after she condemned Zionist state violence in her commencement address on May 30, 2023. Read our statement condemning the CUNY Chancellor’s and Board of Trustees’ attack on Fatima. We also joined Palestine Legal and 12 other prominent civil rights groups in a joint letter to CUNY. You can read the letter on Palestine Legal’s website.