Reclaiming Our Civil Rights & Liberties

We believe in the essential American ideal that we are not constrained by the circumstances of birth but can make of our lives what we will.

Unfortunately, for too many, that ideal is not a reality. We have more work to do. Democrats will fight to end discrimination based on race, sex, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and disability in every corner of our country, because that's the America we believe in.

We all have to do our part to lift up this country, and that means changing hearts and changing minds, and making sure that every American is treated equally under the law. We will restore professionalism over partisanship at the Department of Justice, and staff the civil rights division with civil rights lawyers, not ideologues. We will restore vigorous federal enforcement of civil rights laws in order to provide every American an equal chance at employment, housing, health, contracts, and pay. We are committed to banning racial, ethnic, and religious profiling and requiring federal, state, and local enforcement agencies to take steps to eliminate the practice.

We are committed to ensuring full equality for women: we reaffirm our support for the Equal Rights Amendment, recommit to enforcing Title IX, and will urge passage of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. We will pursue a unified foreign and domestic policy that promotes civil rights and human rights, for women and minorities, at home and abroad. We will pass the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. We will restore and support the White House Initiative on Asian-American and Pacific Islanders, including enforcement on disaggregation of Census data. We will make the Census more culturally sensitive, including outreach, language assistance, and increased confidentiality protections to ensure accurate counting of the growing Latino and Asian American, and Pacific Islander populations, and continue working on efforts to be more inclusive. We will sign the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and restore the original intent of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Latest »

McCain Claims He Hasn't Flipped on Anything from 2000

October 23, 2008 - John McCain told the local CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C. that ''I'm the same guy'' from 2000, claiming that he hasn't flipped on any issue since his last run for the presidency.
Read More · Link to this Article · Comments (5)

5-4 Decision on Habeas Rights

June 12, 2008 - It just broken this morning. Here's SCOTUS Blog:
Read More · Link to this Article · Comments (3)

Must Read: "Racial woes: GOP fails to recruit minorities"

May 20, 2008 - As John McCain tries to court minority voters today, a new report on Politico.com highlights how the Republican Party's "highly publicized" outreach over the last few years has lacked infrastructure and has yielded little results.
Read More · Link to this Article

DNC Commemorates 54th Anniversary of Historic Brown v. Board Decision

May 19, 2008 - Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement on the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, handed down 54 years ago last Saturday, May 17th.
Read More · Link to this Article

Brown v. Board of Education

May 17, 2008 - Today, we celebrate the glorious Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and reaffirm our commitment to the betterment of our schools and the advancement of equality for all.
Read More · Link to this Article · Comments (8)

Dean: California Court Decision a Step Forward for Equality

May 15, 2008 - Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean today issued the following statement on the California Supreme Court decision to overturn the state's anti-marriage ban.
Read More · Link to this Article

Will John McCain Ever Denounce John Hagee's Views?

May 13, 2008 - Reverend John Hagee today apologized for his offensive comments about Catholics. Despite spending a year courting Hagee's endorsement and refusing to distance himself from the controversial pastor, John McCain reportedly played no role in the apology.
Read More · Link to this Article

Michigan Fundraiser Highlights McCain's Radical Friends

May 6, 2008 - What the invitation to a John McCain fundraiser does not say, however, is that Rakolta and Liggett were two of the key backers of an organization that helped finance an ad that compared Democrats to Adolf Hitler in the 2006 election. Rakolta and his wife contributed $10,000 to a group called Voice the Vote, which used the money to buy a newspaper ad that compared Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and a procession of Democratic presidents to Hitler.
Read More · Link to this Article

McCain's SCOTUS Model, Scalia, on Torture and "Cruel and Unusual Punishment"

April 28, 2008 - John McCain says that, if elected president, he would nominate Supreme Court justices in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito.
Read More · Link to this Article · Comments (8)

DNC Statement on Indiana Voter ID Law Ruling By the Supreme Court

April 28, 2008 - The Supreme Court acknowledged that "The record contains no evidence of any such [impersonation] fraud actually occurring in Indiana at any time in its history," and acknowledged the law's burden on the elderly, low-income voters and other classes of voters covering hundreds of thousands of Indiana citizens. Yet this Court, ignoring the realities of life for the less affluent and powerful of the state's citizens, shrugged off these burdens and found that the law should stand.
Read More · Link to this Article