Black Youth File Racial Profiling Complaint Against Medford Police Department →

Unlawful Traffic Stops Due to Race Persist in Massachusetts Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) filed an internal complaint with the Medford Police Department (MPD) on behalf of Jeremiah Mamousette and Hibaq Warsame, two Black college students who were illegally stopped, removed from their vehicle, searched, handcuffed and held at gunpoint in...

Lawsuit Filed to End HIV Discrimination in the Military →

Time to End The Military’s Discrimination Against Individuals Living with HIV Federal Lawsuit Challenges Military’s Ban on Enlisting and Commissioning from Military Academies  Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont against U.S. military officials and the Vermont...

Statement on Supreme Court Draft Opinion →

Statement from Lawyers for Civil Rights on the U.S. Supreme Court Draft Opinion Leaked Draft Overturning Roe v. Wade Would Disproportionately Impact People of Color, Low-Income Individuals May 4, 2022 Earlier this week, a U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion which would overrule Roe v. Wade became public. If this opinion is issued as drafted, it...

Displaced Minority Businesses Call on City to Halt Roxbury Development →

Community Groups Call On City To Halt Roxbury Development That Is Displacing Small, Minority-Owned Businesses Developer Made Repeated “No Displacement” Promises When Seeking City Approval  African Community Development of New England (ACEDONE) and Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) formally called upon the City of Boston and the Boston Planning & Development Agency...

Health Issues in East Boston →

Civil Rights and Immigrants’ Rights Advocates Urge State Officials To Investigate Discriminatory, Substandard Medical Treatment By East Boston Neighborhood Health Center  MA Attorney General and Department of Public Health Asked To Investigate Harrowing Patient Reports Of Misdiagnosis, Delayed Care  Centro Presente and Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) formally requested that the Massachusetts Attorney General...

Ahmaud Arbery Verdict Highlights Gaps In Local Hate Crime Enforcement →

VICTIMS OF HIGH-PROFILE HATE CRIME IN BOSTON DECRY PERPETRATOR'S LENIENT SENTENCEJury Verdict Convicting Ahmaud Arbery’s Murderers of Hate Crimes Highlights Harmful Disparities In Local Hate Crime Enforcement Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) applauds the jury verdict that found Ahmaud Arbery’s killers – Travis and Gregory McMichael and William Bryan –...

Statement on Fall River Police →

Statement from Lawyers for Civil Rights in Support of BLM Protestors in Fall River, MA Following the murder of George Floyd, police reform was widely recognized as an urgent need.  But almost two years later, we are now seeing how entrenched institutional forces threaten to impede progress. In Massachusetts, at the...

Petición de Derechos Humanos Por Abuso Fronterizo →

CIEN ORGANIZACIONES INSTAN A LA COMISIÓN INTERAMERICANA DE DERECHOS HUMANOS A INVESTIGAR ABUSOS Y RACISMO EN LA FRONTERA DE ESTADOS UNIDOS Se necesita monitoreo internacional de los derechos humanos para proteger a los haitianos y los centroamericanos del maltrato y abuso estadounidense Una coalición diversa de cien (100) organizaciones de los...

100 Organizations File Human Rights Petition Against the U.S. →

ONE HUNDRED ORGANIZATIONS URGE INTER-AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE ABUSES AND RACISM AT THE U.S. BORDER International Human Rights Monitoring Needed To Protect Haitian And Central American Refugees from U.S. Mistreatment and Abuse A diverse coalition of one hundred (100) organizations from across the United States and Latin America have...

Colossal Failure: Qualified Immunity Commission →

STATEMENT ON THE FAILURE OF THE QUALIFIED IMMUNITY COMMISSION Lawyers for Civil Rights condemns in the strongest possible terms the shameful outcome of the Special Commission to Investigate and Study the Impact of the Qualified Immunity Doctrine, created by the Massachusetts State Legislature in the wake of George Floyd's murder. The commission was charged...

Civil Rights Groups Seek Clarification of Expungement Statute →

December 23, 2021 Today, Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) filed a brief as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the Massachusetts Appeals Court, urging the Court to apply the Commonwealth’s expungement law broadly, in order to remediate long-standing disparities that pervade the criminal justice system. The brief was filed on behalf of Massachusetts Fair Housing...

Humanitarian Parole Crisis at the Border →

Lawyers for Civil Rights and the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project Take Action On Behalf of Vulnerable Immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico Border  The organizations partnered to file a Freedom of Information Act request to assess the full scope of the crisis surrounding humanitarian parole at the border. Lawyers for...

Statement on Kyle Rittenhouse →

Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) condemns the verdict in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two people and injured one with an AR-15 rifle in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year. Rittenhouse was found not guilty on counts of first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree attempted intentional homicide, and...

Worse Than Expected: Fact-Finding Mission Explains Border Crises →

Fact-finding Delegation Documents Civil Rights Abuses Endured By Refugees At The U.S.-Mexico Border New Report Outlines Barriers to Requesting Asylum Exacerbating Humanitarian and Public Health Crises    In response to the current immigration crisis, Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) sent a delegation on a fact-finding mission to witness and investigate...

Briefing Congress on Haitian Refugee Crisis →

Lawyers for Civil Rights Briefs Congressional Leaders On Conditions Faced By Haitian Families At U.S.-Mexico Border Closed-Door Briefing Follows LCR's Civil Rights Complaint and Fact-Finding Mission to the Border At a closed-door briefing of the Haiti Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives, Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) briefed Congressional leaders on the conditions...

Fact-Finding Mission Confirms Abuses at the Border →

Fact-Finding Delegation Confirms Civil Rights Abuses at the U.S.-Mexico BorderDelegation Documents Illegal Barriers to Requesting Asylum Exacerbating Humanitarian and Public Health Crises   Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) announces the completion of a fact-finding mission to the U.S. border with Mexico. In response to the migrant crisis, LCR visited community-based...

Open Letter To Boston’s Mayoral Candidates On Civil Rights Priorities →

Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) sent an open letter to the mayoral candidates in the City of Boston identifying urgent legal and policy issues that are currently affecting people of color and immigrants across the city. The letter identifies five critical areas for immediate action, and urges the candidates to prioritize the following: Commit to...

Calling for Humanitarian Protection for Haitian Families →

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MUST PROVIDE HUMANITARIAN PROTECTION TO ADDRESS THE HAITIAN MIGRANT CRISIS Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) called on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide life-saving humanitarian protection and relief to Haitian families and children.  In...