No Vote, No Voice: Impact of Disenfranchisement on Communities of Color – February 3, 2010 CUNY School of Law

Speakers

* Juan Cartagena, Community Service Society (CSS)
* Angelo Falcón, National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP)

Moderator: Jenny Rivera, CLORE

For more information, call 718-340-4528  or visit the CLORE webpage, www.law.cuny.edu/clinics/JusticeInitiatives/clore.html.

To join the CLORE mailing list and receive announcements of our events, e-mail clore@mail.law.cuny.edu.

Special thanks to Carmen Rana, Administrative Coordinator and Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan (2L) and Kathleen Meyers (3L) for their assistance with the program.

Supported by the Criminal Law Society, American Constitution Society and the Latin American Law Students Association (LALSA).

Speaker Bios

Juan Cartagena has served as General Counsel at the Community Service Society since November 1991. His overall responsibilities include directing the legal department in public interest litigation on behalf of the poor in the areas of voting rights, education, housing, health and environmental issues; legal affairs of the corporation; and mass imprisonment and reentry initiatives.

Currently, he is working on imprisonment & reentry initiatives, including research on effects of mass incarceration on Latino communities; felon disfranchisement; racial impacts of criminal justice policies; alternatives to incarceration; access to employment for the formerly incarcerated; telephone justice campaign; imprisonment and redistricting; the New York Reentry Roundtable; research and advocacy on the nexus between poverty and incarceration; discriminatory law enforcement measures; training and public education on employment barriers for the formerly incarcerated; promotion of fair employment practices for the formerly incarcerated; juvenile justice; and mentoring individuals with criminal records.

Political Scientist Angelo Falcón is President and Founder of the New York City-based nonprofit and nonpartisan National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP) (formerly the Institute for Puerto Rican Policy).

Falcón is a nationally recognized expert on Latino politics and policy issues. He is the author of the Atlas of Stateside Puerto Ricans and is the co-editor of Latino Voices: Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban Perspectives on American Politics, Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City, Opening the Courthouse Doors: The Need for More Hispanic Judges, and Still on the Outside Looking In: Latino Employment in New York Broadcast Television. His writing has appeared in various publications, including The Nation, New York Post, National Civic Review, El Diario-La Prensa and the Hispanic Link News Service.  Falcón serves on the boards of numerous civic organizations, including the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention. He chairs the National Steering Committee of the Census Information Centers (CIC) Program of the US Bureau of the Census and was recently appointed by the US Commerce Secretary to the Census Bureau’s Advisory Committee on the Hispanic Population, which he chairs. He is co-chair of the New York chapter of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. Most recently, he is one of the lead organizers of the newly-formed NYC Collaborative for Fairness and Equity in Philanthropy, which he chairs.

Moderator: Professor Jenny Rivera, recently returned to CUNY School of Law after serving as Special Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights for the New York State Attorney General’s Office.  In addition to teaching, Professor Rivera is the Director of CUNY’s new Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality.  Professor Rivera worked as an Associate Counsel for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund on discrimination cases and advocacy involving issues on equity testing, gender equality, and language rights.  She also worked for the Legal Aid Society’s Homeless Family Rights Project on housing access and poverty related issues.  She was a Pro Se law clerk in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and clerked for Judge Sonia Sotomayor in the Southern District of New York.  Professor Rivera received her A.B. from Princeton University, J.D. from New York University School of Law, and LL.M. from Columbia University School of Law.  Professor Rivera recently received the Kay Crawford Murray Award from the Committee on Women in the Law of the New York State Bar Association for her work on gender equality and diversity.

About the Organizations

The Community Service Society of New York (CSS) is a 160 year-old institution that has been on the cutting edge of public policy innovations to support poor New Yorkers in their quest to be full participants in the civic life of the nation’s largest city. CSS employs a variety of tools – advocacy, direct service, research and policy analysis, and strategic partnerships – to forge consensus on appropriate policy interventions to facilitate the economic mobility of low-income New Yorkers.  Our legacy includes establishing the prototype for the free school lunch program, serving as the catalyst behind the city’s first tenement housing laws, aiding victims of the Titanic maritime disaster and World Trade Center employees impacted by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, creating the nation’s largest senior volunteer program and the curriculum that spawned the Columbia University School of Social Work.

The National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP) (formerly the Institute for Puerto Rican Policy) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and nonpartisan policy center established in 1982. One of the leading think tanks in the Latino community utilizing an action research model, NiLP is involved in a wide range of policy issues affecting the Latino community. The Institute’s three areas of focus are policy analysis and advocacy, civic participation and policy networking. NiLP sponsors The NiLP Network and its Latino Policy eNewsletter, the Latino Census Network and the Latino Voting Rights Network.

CUNY Law School’s Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality (CLORE) focuses on issues impacting the Latino community in the United States, with the goal of developing progressive strategies for legal reform.  It seeks to educate lawyers, law students, scholars, and the general public on the status of Latinos and Latinas. CLORE advocates for expanded civil rights in the areas that most affect the growing Latino population through a multitude of different mediums.

Under the leadership of Director Professor Jenny Rivera CLORE hosts events bringing together scholars, lawyers, and advocates for discussion and strategic planning. CLORE also offers courses that highlight access to the legal system and explore issues affecting the Latino community. CLORE encourages and supports litigation related opportunities, as well as work that increases the involvement of the private bar in matters positively affecting the Latino community.

CLORE has two dynamic projects that focus on full equality under the law: the Language Access Project, which addresses discrimination based on language and Latino national origin and ethnicity, and the Gender Equality Project, which develops legal strategies to eliminate gender-based discrimination and its effects on the Latino community. The Law School’s library will be the repository for CLORE’s Special Collection on Latinos and Latinas and the Law.

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