February, 03 2011, 12:08pm EDT
Lawyers' Committee Defends Constitutionality of Voting Rights Act in Federal District Court
WASHINGTON
Oral Argument on cross-motions for summary judgment in Shelby County v. Holder
was held on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 in U.S. District Court in
Washington, D.C. before Judge John Bates. This case, challenging the
constitutionality of Section 5 of the landmark Voting Rights Act of
1965, was brought by Shelby County, Alabama. The Lawyers' Committee for
Civil Rights Under Law represents defendant-intervenor Bobby Lee Harris
and presented oral argument in defense of the statute along with the
United States Department of Justice, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF)
and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lawyers'
Committee Chief Counsel Jon Greenbaum, who presented oral argument,
emphasized that "for the last 45 years, Section 5 has played an
indispensable role in preventing the implementation of new
discriminatory voting changes." He added, "While Judge Bates reserved
decision, we are confident that the Court will carefully and properly
apply the appropriate legal standards and will uphold the
constitutionality of Section 5 of this essential civil rights
legislation."
Section
5 preclearance requires jurisdictions with a history of racial
discrimination in voting to submit proposed voting changes for federal
review before they are enforced to ensure that they are free from
discrimination.
The
Lawyers' Committee filed briefs opposing a motion for summary judgment
by Shelby County seeking summary judgment in favor of the defendants.
The briefs emphasize the authority of Congress to extend Section 5, the
weight that Congress' findings must be given by the Court, and the
extensive legislative record before Congress showing that Section 5 is
needed to prevent racial discrimination in voting.
The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today.
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'Historic Victory': Mamdani Delivers on Key Campaign Promise as NYC Board Approves Rent Freeze
"We are so glad to have a partner in Mayor Mamdani who heeded our communities’ years of calls for a rent freeze and understands the needs of working families," said one organizer.
Jun 26, 2026
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and tenant organizers celebrated a "historic victory" on Thursday after the city's Rent Guidelines Board approved a two-year rent freeze affecting roughly a million apartments—around 40% of NYC's rental housing.
The freeze, approved in a 7-1 vote, applies to tenants in rent-stabilized apartments on new one- and two-year leases beginning on or after October 1, 2026. Mamdani, whose mayoral campaign platform vowed to "immediately freeze the rent for all stabilized tenants," said in a statement that the vote provides "the relief that working people across our city deserve."
The mayor, who named six of the rent board's nine members, pledged to "continue working to deliver a more affordable city by building and preserving affordable housing, lowering building operating costs like insurance, and ensuring tenants know their rights."
"I'm grateful for the board members’ thoughtful consideration of the data, including tenants’ ability to pay, cost of living, and building operating costs," said Mamdani.
It might be hot outside but the rent is freezing. pic.twitter.com/EXPaI8emyv
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) June 26, 2026
Celebrations broke out in response to the vote, with Gothamist reporting that jubilant tenants erupted in applause and "spilled into the street" to cheer the rent freeze, which marked the first time the city board has paused rent for both one- and two-year leases.
"Hundreds of tenants packed the theater at El Museo del Barrio, singing and chanting about tenant power ahead of the board’s decision," Gothamist noted. "Many in attendance, who had helped propel Mamdani’s successful campaign for mayor, which featured a viral vow to 'freeze the rent,' held signs demanding a rent freeze. At least one attendee blew a whistle to punctuate the slogans resonating through the auditorium."
Motion passes, after a lengthy speech acknowledging landlord struggles, Wynn acknowledges a rent freeze is in landlords best interest. A zero percent increase on 1 and 2 year leases beginning Oct. 1 passes unanimously. pic.twitter.com/NwwYUlERKg
— Hannah Fierick (@HannahFNYP) June 25, 2026
Fernanda P., a Brooklyn resident and member of the advocacy group Make the Road New York, said in a statement late Thursday that "our communities have spent years organizing and advocating for a rent freeze, and today our efforts have finally paid off."
"This rent freeze is a relief for the thousands of New Yorkers, like myself, who are struggling every day to pay for increasingly unaffordable housing," said Fernanda. "We are so glad to have a partner in Mayor Mamdani who heeded our communities’ years of calls for a rent freeze and understands the needs of working families. We will continue our fight for a New York that is affordable for everybody.”
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'We Intend to Win': California Billionaire Tax Officially Certified for November Ballot
"The fact that the ultra-wealthy and billionaire-backed politicians like Gov. Newsom nearly succeeded in killing it is the single best argument for why we need to tax billionaires in the first place."
Jun 26, 2026
Organizers said late Thursday that a proposed one-time wealth tax on California billionaires has been certified to appear on state ballots in November, advancing despite efforts by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and billionaire-funded groups to tank the measure ahead of the June 25 deadline.
"Today we’re making it clear that we aren’t backing down–the billionaire tax will be on the ballot this November, and we intend to win,” said Debru Carthan, a radiologic technologist and spokesperson for Billionaire Tax Now, the healthcare union-led coalition leading the ballot initiative.
If approved by California voters, the proposal would tax billionaires' wealth at a rate of 5%, raising an estimated $100 billion to shore up the state's healthcare system amid devastating federal cuts to Medicaid. Revenue from the tax would also be used for food aid and education, according to the initiative's text.
Last week, organizers offered to withdraw their proposal if Newsom agreed to push a 2% tax on billionaire wealth in California's Legislature. Newsom, who is widely seen as a 2028 presidential hopeful, rejected the compromise and privately told a major Democratic donor that he was confident the billionaire tax would not appear on California's ballot in November.
Organizers emphasized Thursday that despite Newsom's opposition and fearmongering from billionaires and other opponents, the proposed tax is popular among California voters, who are facing an affordability crisis as the wealthiest see their fortunes soar. From 2023 to 2025, the wealth of California billionaires surged by 144%, according to a recent paper co-authored by leading economists.
"Voters consistently support the billionaire tax by large, double-digit margins, and the growing campaign has brought on thousands of volunteers," organizers said in a statement. "Supporters of the measure submitted over 1.6 million signatures, more than double the number needed to secure a spot on the general election ballot."
To succeed, proponents of the billionaire tax must secure enough votes to pass their initiative while also defeating separate ballot measures that would effectively cancel out the wealth levy. One of the competing initiatives was pushed by a group bankrolled by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who has spent tens of millions of dollars trying to defeat the billionaire tax and who left California in late 2025 to avoid the potential levy.
The competing ballot measures—the Retirement and Personal Savings Protection Act of 2026 and the Improving Transparency, Effectiveness, and Efficiency in California Government Act of 2026—are titled in ways that could lead some voters to support both the wealth tax and proposals that would counteract it.
Igor Volsky, director of the Tax the Greedy Billionaires campaign, said in a statement that "when billionaires can erase democratic initiatives that threaten their fortunes, they have too much power."
"The fact that the ultra-wealthy and billionaire-backed politicians like Gov. Newsom nearly succeeded in killing it is the single best argument for why we need to tax billionaires in the first place," Volsky added.
US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a vocal supporter of the proposed billionaire wealth tax, said Thursday that "this issue couldn’t be more simple."
"There are 250 billionaires in a state of 40 million people," said Khanna. "What we’re saying is, tax these 250 billionaires so that millions of Californians can have healthcare."
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'Ruinous Venture' Alligator Alcatraz Closes, But Systemic Abuse of Immigrants Continues
"The fact that this site ever existed is a travesty, given the cruelty behind it, horrific conditions, and blatant violations of due process," said the deputy director of the ACLU's National Prison Project.
Jun 25, 2026
While welcoming Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' confirmation on Thursday that the immigrant detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" has closed, rights advocates also renewed criticism of how immigrants are being treated across the country as President Donald Trump continues his deadly push for mass detention and deportations.
The facility in the Everglades opened last summer despite concerns about both human rights and the environmental impact. DeSantis said Thursday that "Florida led the way in increasing much-needed detention capacity and working with our federal partners to streamline deportations, removing thousands of the most dangerous criminal aliens from our country."
Despite claims from the president and his allies, federal data have shown that most immigrants detained during his second term lack criminal convictions. In addition to flooding US streets with agents from Customs and Border Protection as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trump has repeatedly demanded that Congress give CBP and ICE more funding.
"Our detention operations support has led to nearly 30,000 additional deportations, and Florida accounts for more than 40% of all state/local immigration arrests nationwide," DeSantis added Thursday. "Alligator Alcatraz has fulfilled this mission. Detainees who are still awaiting deportation have been transferred to other federal facilities, and demobilization efforts are underway."
Responding to the governor on social media, Thomas Kennedy of the Florida Immigrant Coalition said: "You wasted more than $1 billion of Florida's emergency response fund on a failed PR stunt that hurt people and destroyed families. You should never be anywhere near public office again."
As The Associated Press noted Thursday:
Immigration advocates said the center’s tents were never safe or humane for holding people. Detainees at the facility have talked about their difficulty accessing lawyers and described poor physical conditions, including worms in the food, toilets that didn't flush, floors flooded with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects everywhere.
They described large white tents with rows of and rows of bunk beds surrounded by chain-link cages. The air conditioning could shut off abruptly in the sweltering Florida heat. Detainees could go days without showering or getting prescription medicine.
The state and national ACLU as well as Americans for Immigrant Justice (AIJ) had sued over the facility last year.
"The fact that this site ever existed is a travesty, given the cruelty behind it, horrific conditions, and blatant violations of due process. We challenged the Trump administration and the state of Florida over the facility, and now celebrate its closure," Carmen Iguina González, deputy director for immigration detention with the ACLU's National Prison Project, said Thursday.
Keisha Mulfort, deputy executive director and strategy officer of the ACLU of Florida, declared that "with its official closure, 'Alligator Alcatraz' seals its reputation as a ruinous venture. This detention center stands as a monument to what happens when a state government abandons its conscience in service of a federal cruelty agenda."
"The DeSantis administration deliberately built a detention facility in the middle of the Everglades—not despite the harsh conditions, but because of them—and spent over $1 billion of Florida taxpayers' money to do it," she pointed out. "That is not governance; that is cruelty dressed up as policy, and complicity dressed up as leadership. In spite of this, hundreds of thousands of Floridians protested, organized, called their legislators, and refused to look away. They made this moment possible, and we should name that clearly: This is what accountability looks like when the government won't hold itself accountable."
Mulfort also stressed that "as people are transferred to other facilities, the abuses do not disappear—they relocate." She and Iguina González pledged that the state and national ACLU will not stop tracking abuses of immigrants across the country.
"The nightmarish scene found at 'Alligator Alcatraz' is not wholly unique and reflects systemic patterns of abuse at other ICE detention facilities nationwide," Iguina González said. "We remain very concerned that people may be transferred to other sites with sordid and dangerous conditions, and we will continue to monitor this situation."
Paul Chavez, director of litigation and advocacy at AIJ, also emphasized that "closing this facility is an important step, but the government's obligation to respect due process does not end at the facility gates. Constitutional rights must follow every person wherever they are detained."
"We remain deeply concerned that people transferred out of this facility will continue to face mistreatment and civil rights violations in other detention centers," he said. "Americans for Immigrant Justice will continue to defend due process, offer free legal representation to low-income immigrants, and stand strong with our immigrant neighbors, friends, and their families."
After using $1 billion to brutalize immigrants, the concentration camp known as "Alligator Alcatraz" has been emptied. Its victims still need justice.truthout.org/articles/flo...
[image or embed]
— UAINE (@mahtowin1.bsky.social) June 22, 2026 at 10:36 PM
As for the environmental impact, The New York Times reported that after the Trump administration announced that detainees had been relocated, Paul J. Schwiep, an attorney for groups suing over Alligator Alcatraz, promised last week to continue the lawsuit against what he called the "secret gulag in the Everglades."
"They hope that they can slink away in the middle of the night without explaining to anyone what they did, why they did it, or how they proposed to clean up the mess that they've made," said Schwiep. "And we don't intend to let them get away with it."
Ripping the facility as an "internment camp," Congressman Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) similarly asserted on Thursday that "the fight isn't over. We need accountability for the billions of taxpayer dollars wasted, the abuse and harm inflicted on detainees, and the damage done to one of Florida's most sacred ecosystems."
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