civil rights Archives - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Pretextual Vehicle Stops—A Pipeline to Police Testilying

Our January 2023 police perjury report convincingly demonstrates that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) has a culture that condones dishonesty, prevalent lying in court (“testilying”) and, false report-writing by police officers. Along with recommendations to improve transparency (some of which ha...

Mayoral Candidates Answer Questions from Chicago’s Civil Rights Community

Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and Loevy & Loevy asked Chicago’s 2023 mayoral candidates about critical civil rights issues to their communities. JUMP TO INTERACTIVE PAGE >> JUMP TO FULL RESPONSES >> The questionnair...

January 21, 2022: Public Comments to Chicago City Council’s Public Safety Committee in Opposition to the “Victims Justice Ordinance” (VJO)

On Friday, January 21, 2022, Program Manager & Policy Analyst for Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers, Hanna Sharif-Kazemi, provided comments to the Chicago City Council's Public Safety Committee in opposition of Mayor Lightfoot's proposed "Victims Justice...

New NJDC Report Documents States’ Failure to Protect Children’s Right to Counsel

The National Juvenile Defender Center (“NJDC”) has issued new report that examines a serious failure in our justice system: the systematic denial of children’s constitutional right to a public defense. As NJDC’s troubling new report, Access Denied, documents, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled fifty year...

Advocates Call for an End to the Presumptive Shackling of Juveniles in Court

The Illinois Justice Project has submitted a proposed proposed rule to the state Supreme Court Rules Committee to reform the practice of shackling children appearing in juvenile court. The Committee referred the proposed rule to the Juvenile Justice Committee of the Judicial Conference in order to s...

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