Civil Rights Corps
Racial Justice Bill Legislative Drafting
The Movement for Black Lives is writing a piece of federal legislation called The BREATHE Act, which will bring to life legislative language the vision articulated in the M4BL Vision for Black Lives.
Posted July 16, 2020
Background & Context
In honor of the lives of those stolen by police and state-sanctioned violence — Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Natasha McKenna, George Floyd, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Elijah McClain, Pearlie Golden, Kayla Moore, Freddie Gray, Atatiana Jefferson, Oscar Grant, and far too many more, M4BL is rising up against all the ways that the criminal-legal system has harmed and failed to protect Black communities. The current moment requires a solution that fundamentally shifts how we envision community-care and invest in our society. History is clear that we cannot achieve genuine safety and liberation until we abandon police, prisons, and all punishment paradigms. This bill will articulate a legislative roadmap for enacting this transformation. See www.breatheact.org.
Immediate Problem
This bill will articulate the M4BL vision in a federal bill that can serve as an organizing tool for the State and local work already happening nationwide.
Work & Deliverables
We need a team of lawyers who can convert a detailed bill outline into legislative language. Experience with bill drafting, particularly at the federal level, is a must. The bill spans a wide range of issue areas, but we are particularly interested in people who have federal legislative drafting experience with criminal justice, voting, education, and housing.
Civil Rights Corps
Civil Rights Corps is a non-profit organization dedicated to challenging systemic injustice in the American legal system. We work with individuals accused and convicted of crimes, their families and communities, people currently or formerly incarcerated, activists, organizers, judges, and government officials to challenge mass human caging and to create a legal system that promotes equality and human freedom. Civil Rights Corps engages in advocacy and public education and specializes in innovative, systemic civil rights litigation with the goal of resensitizing the legal system and our culture to the injustice and brutality that characterize the contemporary American criminal system.
Civil Rights Corps
Civil Rights Corps is a non-profit organization dedicated to challenging systemic injustice in the American legal system. We work with individuals accused and convicted of crimes, their families and communities, people currently or formerly incarcerated, activists, organizers, judges, and government officials to challenge mass human caging and to create a legal system that promotes equality and human freedom. Civil Rights Corps engages in advocacy and public education and specializes in innovative, systemic civil rights litigation with the goal of resensitizing the legal system and our culture to the injustice and brutality that characterize the contemporary American criminal system.