Spring at the WLC: You’re the Change

April 2018 | Washington Lawyers' Committee eNewsletter

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Dear Friend of the Washington Lawyers' Committee,

We are having a reunion on June 5th and we want you to be there. In our 50^th year, we are gathering together the rich community of co-counsel, clients, Board members, Trustees, and staff who worked hard and courageously to bring positive civil rights change. The reunion will be held at the Woolly Mammoth theater. We need you to do two things:

Go here and make certain we have accurate information about your Committee involvement;
Contact all of your Committee friends and make certain that they plan to attend.

The below newsletter highlights just a slice of the work we are doing together right now. I am inspired, and grateful, to be in this struggle with you

Jon Smith
Executive Director, Washington Lawyers’ Committee

Standing for Immigration Justice

Immigration policy has become increasingly racialized and punishing on immigrants of color. The Committee has undertaken critical litigation to seek justice for immigrant communities. Most recently, we filed a lawsuit on March 23 on behalf of CASA de Maryland and several El Salvador nationals in the Maryland federal District Court challenging the unlawful termination of El Salvador’s designation as a Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) country. TPS has allowed 200,000 of our Salvadoran friends, neighbors, and coworkers build lives in the U.S. and make our country richer and stronger. The Administration’s termination of TPS for El Salvador is motivated by an unconstitutional anti-immigrant and racial bias and fails to meet the minimal legal standards for termination. The Committee and Akin Gump represent Plaintiffs in this action.

Fighting Against Housing Segregation

Since its inception, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee has fought for fair housing and the creation of opportunities for everyone to live in racially and economically integrated neighborhoods. As we pursue a docket of groundbreaking fair housing cases, we recognize that segregation did not occur by accident. The federal government explicitly segregated neighborhoods in the 20th century, resulting in much of the racial segregation we have today and contributing significantly to the racial wealth gap in America.

On March 19, hundreds of community members joined us to discuss this injustice with Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Rothstein’s book is not only a vital history of racial discrimination, but essential to understanding the current housing crisis in the District and the region.

The Washington Lawyers’ Committee shares a birthday with the Fair Housing Act. We will be continuing the conversation on creating equity in housing on April 20 in a symposium that we are co-sponsoring with the Equal Rights Center and the UDC David A. Clarke School of Law. Register here.

Pushing Back Against the Racial Wealth Gap and Inequity in Schools

The Washington Post, highlighting our Parent Empowerment Program (PEP), recently spotlighted how the racial wealth gap contributes to the opportunity and resource gap in public education. Parent-raised private funds are contributing to the inequity among DC schools. But PEP, led by Jhonna Turner, supports parents realize their own power to benefit their neighborhood school communities and exercise a greater voice in shaping their children’s educational opportunities. The featured School-to-School Initiative also helps parents understand the resources that are available to them and how to best raise additional funding for their school communities, despite the challenges and injustices that these communities face. Read more about WLC’s recent Education Justice efforts…

Spotlight: John Relman, Social Justice Changemaker

Board Member and former Project Director John Relman was recently featured by the DC Bar Magazine as a “social justice changemaker”—and we couldn’t agree more. At the Washington Lawyers’ Committee, he led the Denny’s lawsuit in which six African-American Secret Service agents were denied service while their white counterparts ate lunch. The suit resulted in a $54 million settlement. His firm Relman, Dane & Colfax focuses on housing justice issues and has been an important co-counsel with the Committee on housing and discrimination matters for years. Most recently, he has co-counseled a WLC lawsuit challenging the criminal records screening policy of a national housing provider, resulting in illegal race and national origin discrimination and perpetuating housing segregation in DC.

Litigation Updates

At the Fourth Circuit on behalf of our client Franklin Savage, WLC’s Dennis Corkery argued that a prosecutor may not use a witness prep room as a blank check for a hostile work environment nor can Brady obligations be an excuse for unlawfully ending Mr. Savage’s career.

We filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction on behalf of immigrant children detained in the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center who are being subjected to horrific abuse “border[ing] on a form of torture.”

The court granted class certification in our Brookland Manor litigation, allowing the plaintiffs and class we represent to keep fighting for an inclusive redevelopment that provides a home to families.

A judge ruled that our client, Patricia Thomas, may proceed in her lawsuit against Kohl’s Department Stores for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act because the store’s layout makes it inaccessible to people with disabilities.

A federal court ordered that teletypewriters aren’t a meaningful accommodation and the Michigan Department of Corrections must make videophones available to all deaf and hard of hearing prisoners.

Our DACA case was dismissed, but the court did enjoin the Trump administration from using information provided by DACA recipients in immigration enforcement. We are considering all of our options, including appeal.

Policy & Amicus Advocacy

We continue to support DACA recipients on all fronts—in March, we joined other civil rights organizations to file a 9th Circuit amicus brief in support of a nationwide injunction preserving DACA.

We joined other civil rights organizations in a SCOTUS amicus brief supporting the injunction against Trump’s Muslim Travel Ban 3.0.

We told HUD that its effective suspension of implementation of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule is a shortsighted step backward and asked that it immediately work to implement the Rule.

We opposed the TOPA Single-Family Home Exemption Amendment Act of 2018, which would be particularly harmful to low and moderate income DC families. DC is in an affordable housing crisis and now is not the time to take away the rights of low-income tenants to have a stable place to live.

Brook Hill also testified to the DC Council strongly opposing the Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2018, which attempts to expand the authority of and discretion given to the Zoning Commission to approve development projects without prohibiting the approval of any project that does not affirmatively further fair housing—a requirement under federal law.

Phil Fornaci briefed DC Council staff on the importance of taking the parole function back from the federal government. More than half of DC prisoners are in because of parole—transferring the parole function back to the District can dramatically reduce our prison population.

We joined 55 other organizations calling on the U.S. Department of Labor Secretary to release hidden analysis questioning a proposed controversial tip rule.

Civil Rights in the News

“Guns are the problem.” Jonathan Smith weighs in on the debate about guns in our schools, pointing out that increased police presence in schools has criminalized young people of color and contributed to the school-to-prison pipeline.

HUD removed from its mission the goal “to…build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination,” a shocking move given the federal government’s responsibility for racial segregation and the creation of wealth and income inequality and housing injustice.

Our client the Equal Rights Center’s report shows how African American families with children experience illegal discrimination in the DC housing market.

Our fight against the treatment of women at Fluvanna Correctional Center continues as more women are dying.

Congratulations to all the advocates who protected DC’s Universal Paid Leave Act. Maryland businesses now also must provide paid sick leave.

There has been no progress in how African Americans fare in comparison to whites when it comes to homeownership, unemployment, and incarceration in the past 50 years—and in some cases, African Americans are worse off today.

The Second Circuit ruled that discriminating against someone on the basis of sexual orientation is prohibited under federal civil rights law.

Our intern Jerra Holdip won Best Petitioner in the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project’s High School National Moot Court Competition!

On April 19 the District of Columbia Bar will be honoring WLC’s Philip Fornaci with the Jerrold Scoutt Prize. Congratulations, Phil!

“Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American.” The Kerner Commission Report turned 50. (Just like us.)

Join Us: Internship and Employment Opportunities
Development Associate
Paralegal
Prisoners’ Rights Litigation Attorney

Fight Injustice & Inequality with WLC: Volunteer and Pro Bono Opportunities

Workers' Rights Clinic April Schedule

Click here to get involved with clinic and additional volunteer opportunities with the Committee.

Wednesdays, April 4, 11, 18, and 25 from 6–9 p.m., at Bread for the City, 1525 Seventh Street NW
Fridays, April 6 and 20, from 12–4 p.m., at the Neighborhood Legal Services Program office at 2811 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
Saturday, April 28, from 10 a.m.–1 p.m., at Bread for the City, 1640 Good Hope Road SE

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