Deuel Ross

We’ve expanded our senior leadership team! Deuel Ross and Christopher Kemmitt are our newest Directors of Litigation – through their incredible leadership, they’ll continue to use the law to ensure power is shared and ALL Americans are able to thrive.

Before this long day ahead officially gets underway, let me say I’m excited that my article “The Disability History of Brown v. Board of Education” will be published in the Washington & Lee Journal of Civil Rights & Social Justice @JcrsjWLU.

Many of the Virginia voters who have been kicked off the rolls are eligible citizens. These are eligible Virginians who deserve to have their voices heard. Here's a roundup of reporting about individual voters from Lynchburg, Roanoke, Henrico, and Woodbridge.

WE WON: Good news on our AL case where the 11th Circuit just denied Alabama’s motion to stay our preliminary injunction win. This means assistance for disabled, blind & low literacy voters can continue during these critical last weeks to request absentee applications. 1/3

ANOTHER WIN: A federal court in Texas has issued a 114-page decision holding various restrictions, disclosure reqs & crim penalties to make voting assistance more difficult for voters who are disabled, low literacy, or have limited English proficiency violate Sec 208 of the VRA.

CASE UPDATE: SCOTUS granted an emergency stay today in Robinson v. Callais, pausing enforcement of a district court’s decision to strike down Louisiana’s congressional map as a racial gerrymander. naacpldf.org/press-release/…

Building on LDF’s historic redistricting win in #MilliganvMerrill in AL, we convinced the Supreme Court to preserve a 2nd majority-Black cong’l district for the 2024 elections in Louisiana. Infinite kudos to our clients & legal team. This is the power of perseverance realized.

NEW: In Louisiana's congressional redistricting fight, a group of Black voters represented by @NAACP_LDF and other civil rights groups asks SCOTUS to put a hold on a three-judge court ruling that blocks the state’s new congressional map while they appeal documentcloud.org/documents/2465…

About a fifth of America’s petrochemical production is concentrated on a stretch of land along the Mississippi River in southeastern Louisiana. That production comes with serious risks. to.pbs.org/3U0jKoi

#BREAKING: We filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in Alabama State Conference of the NAACP et al. v. Marshall et al. asking the court to pause the state of Alabama from criminalizing the assistance of voters with their absentee ballot applications.

Ms. Lavigne of ⁦⁦@risestjames⁩ is an incredible advocate & true force to be reckoned with. Her father was also one of the folks who first fought to enforce Brown v. Board in St. James. I’m awed by her strength and grace & grateful for her work! time.com/6964977/sharon…

NEW CASE ALERT: LDF and a coalition of civil rts, voting rts & disability rts orgs have sued Alabama’s Atty Gen’l, AL’s 42 Dist Attys & @alaSecofstate to block Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) that targets, restricts & penalizes nonpartisan civic engagement efforts. naacpldf.org/press-release/…

Today, LDF and other civil rights organizations sued Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, Alabama’s 42 District Attorneys, and Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen to block Alabama’s recently enacted Senate Bill 1 (SB 1). naacpldf.org/press-release/…

We must also acknowledge on whose shoulders we stand: LDF attorneys Lani Guinier & Jack Greenberg, our 2nd Pres & Director-Counsel, helped win the 1st majority Black cong'l district in Louisiana in 1983 in Major v. Treen, with legends like LDF cooperating attny Bill Quigley.

Hard to put into words what the congressional map adding a 2nd majority Black district in Louisiana that the state legislature passed yesterday and Gov. @jefflandry will soon sign into law means in the historical arc of justice for Black Louisianans. Here’s an attempt. #Thread

WE DID IT! Our amazing clients, LDF legal team & co-counsel, along w/ the Louisiana Legislature & leadership of Gov. @JeffLandry got passed a bill creating a 2nd congressional district in the state where Black voters can (finally) elect a candidate of their choosing!

Happy 93rd birthday to Fred Gray, my personal hero who is still practicing law in Alabama. Honor of my lifetime to work with him on Alabama's higher education desegregation case when I was a baby lawyer. He's a fabulous trial lawyer who taught me how to examine witnesses.