Brennan Center for Justice
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University of Law is a public policy and law institute that focuses on voting rights, campaign reform, and public education on constitutional law issues. The Center was founded in 1995 by the law clerks and family of the late Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan.
THE CASE
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A grant was made for legal work related to Farrakhan v. Gregoire, a challenge on the basis of racial discrimination to the state law in Washington that disenfranchises people with felony convictions. The case was brought in conjunction with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In Washington, African Americans make up only 3 percent of the state’s population but nearly 25 percent of all black men in the state are denied the right to vote because of their criminal convictions.
CASE UPDATES SINCE GRANT YEAR
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As a result of their Foundation grant funding, Brennan Center aided in the defense of a New York State law that was held to be constitutional that had ended the practice of “prison-based gerrymandering”. The law changed the way the State allocated people in terms of their voting for redistricting purposes by counting those in prison in their home communities rather than previously where they were incarcerated. The prior practice distorted demographics to diminish the voting strength of poor and minority communities by counting the votes of prisoners based upon their place of incarceration. Little v. LATFOR
GRANT AMOUNT
$5,000 (2011)
“The Barbara McDowell Foundation’s support was critical in ensuring that we had the resources needed to put forward the strongest arguments in defense of the law ending prison-based gerrymandering in New York State.”
—Myrna Perez, Director of Voting Rights and Election Programs