EEOC Issues Resource Document, Announces Plans to Improve Data Collection and Outreach on Religious Discrimination

New Fact Sheet Addresses Rights, Responsibilities for Youth

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Chair Jenny Yang and Commissioner Charlotte Burrows participated in an interagency briefing at the White House today and announced the release of a one-page fact sheet designed to help young workers better understand their rights and responsibilities under the federal employment anti-discrimination laws prohibiting religious discrimination. The fact sheet is available at EEOC's Youth@Work website, which presents information for teens and other young workers about employment discrimination.

Combating Religious Discrimination Today, a community engagement initiative coordinated by the White House and the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, brought together EEOC and other federal agencies to promote religious freedom, challenge religious discrimination, and enhance efforts to combat religion-based hate violence and crimes.

Read more here.

View the one-page fact sheet here.

View the report from the U.S. Department of Justice here.

Chicago Police to Pay $3.1 Million to Settle Hiring Bias Claim Brought by Department of Justice Based on Applicant Background Check Requirements

SmithAmundsen LLC, Lexology

Unless you’ve been avoiding the national news the last several months, you already know the Chicago Police Department (CPD) has been in the cross hairs of the Department of Justice for alleged civil rights violations. Just this past Friday, February 5, 2016, the Department made a new civil rights claim against the CPD based on employment discrimination. The court complaint filed on Friday in the Northern District of Illinois, entitled United States v. City of Chicago, No. 1:16-cv-01969 (N.D.Ill. Feb. 5, 2016), alleges discrimination based on national origin. It claims the CPD discriminated againstapplicants not born in the United States through its residency requirement. Specifically, the Complaint alleged that a total of 47 applicants, who were otherwise qualified, were denied employment by CPD because they hadn’t lived in the United States for the required residency period. It claims that all 47 applicants were entitled to back pay, interest on lost wages and compensatory damages and requested that the city change its hiring policies removing the residency requirement as a “pass/fail” screening device.

Read the story here.

Department of Justice Sues Ferguson, Which Reversed Course on Agreement

By Matt Apuzzo, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice filed a civil rights lawsuit against Ferguson, Mo., on Wednesday, less than a day after the city rejected an agreement to overhaul its beleaguered criminal justice system and address allegations of widespread abuses by its police department.

Read the story here.

Related content:

• Feds Sue City of Ferguson for Civil Rights Violations (DiversityInc)

Federal Government Remains Focused on Title IX Compliance

By Olabisi Okubadejo, Ballard Spahr LLP

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently made announcements that signal the government’s continued focus on ensuring that colleges and universities comply with Title IX's prohibition against sex discrimination, including sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Read the press release here.

Related content:

• Education Dept. Defends Its Approach to Title IX in Face of Senate Pressure (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Campuses may be ill-equipped to handle sexual assault, but it's the law (Education Dive)

Colleges Discriminate Against the Blind With Google Apps, Advocates Say

The Chronicle of Higher Education
March 15, 2011, 6:07 pm
By Marc Parry

Many colleges find Google’s free e-mail and word-processing services irresistible.
Blind professors and students find them to be something else: inaccessible.
That’s the accusation of a civil-rights complaint filed today against New York University and Northwestern, two institutions that recently adopted the suite of free software services known as Google Apps for Education. The National Federation of the Blind wants the Justice Department to investigate both universities for discriminatory behavior that allegedly violates the Americans With Disabilities Act.
In a series of online videos, the advocacy group lays out a range of problems that occur when blind users access Google’s products with assistive software that reads Web pages aloud. For example, Gmail lacks clear labels to alert users to the type of information that they should put in each text field, such as the message’s subject or the recipient’s e-mail address, says Christopher Danielsen, a spokesman for the blind federation.

Full Story: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/colleges-discriminate-against-the-blind-with-google-apps-advocates-say/30394?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

President Is Said to Decide to Renominate Six Choices

The New York Times
January 8, 2010

By CHARLIE SAVAGE
President Obama will renominate Dawn Johnsen to lead the Justice Department’s powerful Office of Legal Counsel, along with his choices for five other jobs that the Senate did not act on last year, a White House official said Thursday.
Ms. Johnsen, an Indiana University law professor who served as acting head of the office in the Clinton administration, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in March. But the full Senate never voted on her nomination.
The Office of Legal Counsel tells the president and other executive officials whether actions would be lawful. Officials who rely on its opinions are essentially safe from prosecution.
Once obscure, the office became controversial in the Bush administration when it secretly signed off on interrogation and surveillance policies that bypassed statutory and treaty restraints, citing sweeping theories of presidential power. Ms. Johnsen was an outspoken critic of those claims.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/us/politics/08nominate.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

Senate Confirms Holder as First African American Attorney General

washingtonpost.com
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 2, 2009; 7:03 PM

The Senate this evening confirmed Eric H. Holder Jr. as the nation's first African American Attorney General in a vote of 75 to 21, opening a new chapter for a Justice Department that had suffered under allegations of improper political influence and controversial policy decisions on wiretapping and harsh interrogation practices.
Holder, 58, will arrive at the Justice Department headquarters in Washington tomorrow for a swearing in ceremony and to greet some of the department's 110,000 employees.
"The need for new leadership at the Department of Justice is as critical today as it's ever been," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the Judiciary Committee chairman, on the Senate floor this afternoon. "This confirmation is going to do a great deal to restore the morale and the purpose throughout the department."
The Senate vote occurred four days after Holder overcame concerns by a small but vocal group of GOP lawmakers over his position on national security and gun rights, as well as his recommendations in two controversial Clinton clemency decisions. After delaying consideration of the nomination for a week, the Judiciary panel ultimately voted 17 to 2 Thursday to advance Holder's bid to serve as the country's chief law enforcement officer.

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/02/AR2009020202581.html