Naacp Legal Defense And Education Fund

Denouncing the Los Angeles Police Commission as a failure, more than 25 civil rights and community groups Thursday said they have formed a Coalition for Police Accountability to seek improved public oversight of the Police Department.

As California's shortage of death row lawyers worsens, Gov. Pete Wilson and lawmakers have been weighing remedies. "We are looking into the whole issue," said Sean Walsh, Wilson's press secretary. "It's a comprehensive look to see how to expedite putting someone to death who's on death row." Meanwhile, two bills offering solutions have sprung from a series of legislative hearings on death row delays held in Sacramento in December.

In a renewed assault on the University of California's ban on affirmative action in student admissions, two civil rights groups filed a formal complaint Friday aimed at retaining some preferences for women and minority applicants to its law, medical and other graduate schools. Spinning a novel and complex argument, the complaint filed with the U.S.

President Clinton has settled on Boston lawyer Deval L. Patrick in a third effort to fill the top civil rights enforcement position at the Justice Department, Administration sources said Saturday. The nomination of Patrick, 37, a Harvard Law School graduate who has worked closely with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc., is expected to be announced shortly, perhaps early this week, the sources said. The President withdrew his first nominee, C.

A federal judge has concluded that many Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies at the Lynwood station routinely violate civil rights, are motivated by "racial hostility" and use "terrorist-type tactics" with the knowledge of their superiors. U. S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. issued the written finding this week in support of his Sept. 23 order that the Sheriff's Department abide by its own use-of-force policies. The order was temporarily blocked by the U. S.

Angry members of the Bus Riders Union, arguing that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is not abiding by a landmark federal consent decree, were rebuffed Wednesday when they demanded immediate action by the agency's board to improve bus service in Los Angeles.

The city's 350,000 daily bus riders have been spending a little more on fares over the past few weeks, but local activists have nevertheless found reason to celebrate. Were it not for a lawsuit filed by the Labor/Community Strategy Center and its offshoot, the 500-member Bus Riders Union, fares would have gone from $1.10 to $1.35 much sooner, and there would no longer be any adult discount passes.

Some of the Supreme Court's most conservative members seemed to be having second thoughts Wednesday about whether they should overturn key civil rights rulings of the 1960s and 1970s that outlawed racial discrimination in private schools, housing and employment. In April, the five conservatives shocked civil rights advocates by announcing that they would "reconsider" past rulings that interpret post-Civil War laws to forbid discrimination in the private sector, as well as by government.

The Supreme Court, in a far-reaching ruling aimed at reducing discrimination in the jury selection process, held Wednesday that the prosecution may not remove prospective jurors simply because they belong to the same race as the defendant. In a 7-2 decision, the justices significantly limited prosecutors' ability to use "peremptory challenges"--for which no reason need be shown--to exclude jurors they believe may be hostile to their case.

The Reagan Administration may exclude nonprofit political and legal advocacy groups from sharing in the government's $100-million annual campaign for charitable donations by federal employees, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The justices, concluding their current term, reversed by a vote of 4 to 3 a ruling that required the Administration to allow a wide range of such organizations--some liberal, some conservative--to participate in the drive along with traditional health and welfare groups.