PRP partnered with NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Seattle to call on United Parcel Service (UPS), Fed Ex Corporation and XPO Logistics to expand worker protections to address the public health crisis. After learning that workers are being forced to show up to work despite showing COVID-19 symptoms due to fear of retaliation, these cities urged the delivery companies to revise their sick leave policy to address public health concerns.

Public Rights Project today launched the application for its third cohort of Public Rights Project Fellows. Public Rights Project will conduct a national search for full-time attorney fellows to place in local and state government law offices for two years. Fellows will work on a range of cutting-edge civil rights, criminal justice, economic justice, and environmental protection issues that directly impact vulnerable populations locally and nationwide.

Responding to repeated insistence by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that it will not provide influenza vaccinations to migrant children held at the border, Public Rights Project and the Office of the County Counsel for Los Angeles County sent a forceful letter late yesterday urging a court-appointed monitor to compel the border agency to provide potentially life-saving vaccines.

Today Public Rights Project released a new guide for district attorneys – those elected this week as well as those in office for many years – outlining how to crack down on corporate crimes that are hurting so many Americans. The guide explores tools prosecutors already have to support and protect vulnerable people.

Today Public Rights Project announced the newest cohort of its Public Rights Project Fellowship, a national program that adds capacity and expertise to state and local governments to protect their residents’ legal and civil rights. New legal fellows will be working alongside elected leaders in the offices of Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker, and Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul.

When prosecutors hold corporations accountable for breaking the law, Americans see that the legal system can work for them, not just against them. When people see justice in their lives, they gain trust and confidence in government. The end result is a stronger democracy and more stable economy for everyone.

In the survey of 2,000 U.S. adults in March 2019 conducted by David Binder Research, 54 percent of respondents said they’d experienced corporate abuse in the last 10 years, including wage theft, predatory lending, predatory debt collection, unsafe rental housing conditions, or health problems due to pollution created by a business.

As amici, local governments from Los Angeles, California to Fayettville, Arkansas, shared insights about the ripple effects that LGBT workplace discrimination has--not only the overall well-being of LGBT people and their families--but also on the broader community and government infrastructure that depend on them. As “the level of government closest to the American people,” local governments “have seen firsthand the benefits to the entire community when the full scope of sex-based discrimination is prohibited.”

After a national search, we are thrilled to announce the inaugural cohort of the Affirmative Leaders Fellowship. Our Fellows were selected from 23 state and local government offices and in 12 states and the District of Columbia.

“While cases against the Trump Administration like the census matter rightly grab headlines, the next step is for government to expand beyond reacting to the federal government and use their proactive authority to enforce their residents’ legal rights.”