Affirmative Action
UEAALDF represented 41 black, Latino/a, Arab, Asian and white student intervenor-defendents in defense of the University of Michigan Law School’s affirmative action program in a case that spanned six years (1997 – 2003). In the month-long trial, we put forward two-thirds of the evidence and expert witnesses. In a landmark ruling in 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that consideration of race in college admissions is constitutional.
We brought a Voting Rights Act lawsuit in Michigan to expose the wide-spread fraud used by anti-affirmative action circulators to gather the petition signatures required to gain a place on the ballot. Despite overwhelming evidence, backed by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, Federal Judge Tarnow ruled that the referendum would remain on the ballot.
We brought, or threatened to bring, similar lawsuits in Oklahoma, Missouri and Arizona, successfully keeping the initiatives off the ballots in those states.
We have pending constitutional challenges to the bans on affirmative action in both Michigan and California. In July of 2011, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in our favor, finding that Prop 2, the ban on affirmative action in Michigan, violates the Fourteenth Amendment.
Immigrant Rights
UEAALDF attorneys have succesfully represented individuals fighting deportation proceedings. We also filed an amicus brief in the federal lawsuit challenging Arizona’s draconian anti-immigrant law, SB 1070.
K-12 Desegregation
UEAALDF intervened in and successfully defended desegregation programs in both the Los Angeles and Berkeley Unified School Districts.
We also filed an amicus brief for Parents Involved…., the lawsuit that determined the constitutionality of voluntary desegregation programs, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006.
Defend Public Education
In 2000, UEAALDF filed a challenge to the state-takeover of Detroit Public Schools on the basis that it deprived Detroit’s predominantly black community of the democratic right, enjoyed by voters in almost every other school district, to have local control over its schools.
In 2007, we filed a lawsuit against the planned closure of over 40 schools in Detroit. While we did not prevail in the courtroom, the pressure of the community mobilization around the case persuaded the Superintendent to forgo the school closings planned for the following year.
In 2010, we represented the Detroit Board of Education in its lawsuit against Detroit’s financial manager for usurping the powers of the Board and carrying out another massive round of school closures, which endangered students, degraded education in Detroit and, in many cases, denied students the right to a public education (where only charter schools were left in a particular neighborhood). We prevailed in this lawsuit, though the ruling was issued too late to save many of the schools in dispute.
We also filed a conflict of interest lawsuit challenging the fact the the CEO appointed to run Detroit Public Schools was receiving a major portion of his salary from the pro-charter Broad Foundation.
Workers Rights
UEAALDF litigated a first amendment rights case for a teacher in Ohio and defended two Detroit teachers who were victimized for standing up against school closures. The teachers were fully exonerated and returned to their classrooms.
UEAALDF also filed a wage and hours claim for members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers who were illegally forced to give their employer, Detroit Public Schools a “loan” of $250 for 40 weeks. After fighting an initial dismissal of their claim, the teachers won their lawsuit.