Meeting of the Us Commission on civil rights comes to order at 10 00 on august 18, 2017. A meeting takes place at Committee Headquarters at 1331 pennsylvania avenue northwest, washington dc. I am chair catherine lhamon. With me, commissioner gail meriot, commissioner Peter Kirsanow, say your name, commissioner David Gladney. Are you present . Thank you. In trouble already. Commissioner michael yaki. Im here. The Court Reporter is present, director, are you present . Im present. Meeting comes to order. Motion to approve the agenda for this business meeting . Second . Perfect. I was going to ask for amendments. I have a few to start us off. I would like to remove discussion on vote on lb gt employment determination, some commissioners requested additional time to review the report. I think staff for finalizing the report that we place on the agenda for next months meeting. Second, i would like to add consideration for statement titled the Us Commission on civil rights condemns the administrations military ban on transgender individuals. Third, i would like to amend at a presentation dry California Advisory Committee member Rachel Sigmund who requested to speak to the commission to present her defense on that committees report. Any other proposed amendments . I would like to amend the agenda to add a statement that has been circulated through doj policy. Michael yaki. Two items. One, statement on reversal of the department of justice position on the national voting, and vra. The second is to add a vote on what i shared with the other commission. Debo adegbile. I would like to add a statement on charlottesville on behalf of the commission. Thank you. Any other proposed amendments . Lets vote to approve the agenda as amended. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed . Any objections . How the motion passes unanimously. We will discuss and vote on the discovery plan on recent date and location for fy 2018 statutory enforcement report on Voting Rights. Open the floor for amendments and discussion. Thank you. A discussion on the motion, i start by offering a few amendment circulated yesterday. My proposed amendments to the discovery plan adding language to specify the report should look at section 208 of the Voting Rights act which states, quote, voters requiring assistance because of blindness, disability or inability to read or write may be given assistance by a person of the voters choice. The discovery plan i propose the following three changeds. One, adding subsection e to number one and relettering subsequent sections. Subsection 1e would state participation by doj in claims under section 208 of the vra with one subsection identifying United States versus Southern District of texas, 2006, alleging the county failed to ensure voters who are disabled, blind or illiterate were allowed adding 2 b and section 208 before litigation and 3, adding to iiia, people with disabilities, before, in the 2016 president ial election in the first sentence. To the outline i propose the following. First, after the chapter 2 section heading titled, quote, examine trends in section 203, language minority litigation, examine trends in section 208, Disability Access litigation, 2006 vra reauthorization. Second, in subsection voter turnout and registration adding and persons with disabilities after limited english Language Proficiency in the first seconds in the first sub bullet. In the second sub bullet of the same subsection adding and 208 after section 2 and 203. In the chapter 3 section heading titled review of statement of interest objection letters, add claims under section 208 of the vra after the first two. Do i have a second for these amendments . Second. Any other amendments . I have two. My proposed amendments are to the outline. The first one is under chapter 2, under state actions after the shelby decision. It is state actions after the shelby decision, several bullets down talks about automatic Voter Registration and voting by mail. I would like to add voting registration, to make it clear we are also looking at changes to voting registration processes. There have been several states that made it more difficult to register and i suspect there might be problems. The second change is under the same section, just to add a bullet that talks about examples of impact to students of color for not accepting university issued id and closure of polling sites such as ams university and i am not trying to expand it to cover all of the issues around student voting which are not covered by this but simply the intersection where minority students are being targeted that would be covered. Any other proposed amendments, discussions . Madam chair . I would like to thank commissioners for flexibility with regard to the state of this briefing. I have some International Travel that will keep me away from the originally contemplated dates that we are focused on february 2nd so i think the commissioners for that. Any other discussions . We may be getting into trouble with a too ambitious, when we say it the put before the commission, a little bit more elaborate and detailed than this but on a smaller scale i would like in the future to get back to a more focused question than we have now and staff has done a good job with what they can do with this. Appreciate the caution and history of how we got here. Take a roll call vote. Debo adegbile . Gail meriot, David Gladney . Karen narasaki, michael yaki, and i vote yes. The motion passes unanimously. The dates and locations of our other briefings in fiscal year 2018. I move we hold the School Discipline briefing for december 8, 2017, in washington dc and hate crimes briefing on may 11, 2008, team in washington dc. Is there a second . Thank you. Discussion . Hearing none, take a roll call vote. [rollcall vote] the motion passes unanimously. Consider amended business items beginning with the statement on charlottesville. I will turn it over to Debo Adegbile so we know what we are building on. Thank you. Us commission on civil rights taking on charlottesville. Us commission on civil rights expresses its profound dismay over the violence and deadly a events in Charlottesville Virginia between august 11th, and august 13, 2017, motivated by racial and religious intolerance. We join the nation in mourning the death of 32yearold Heather Heyer who was the victim of domestic terrorism motivated by a white supremacist ideology. She lives now in our National Memory as a martyr for racial and religious justice. We also mourn the death of state trooper hj cullen, 48, and burkey bates, a day short of his 41st birthday who died in a tragic Helicopter Crash after they were dispatched to monitor the violence in charlottesville. As americans we are committed to the right to assemble peaceably but we condemn racial, ethnic and religious hatred, incitement and violence. The events in charlottesville stand as another tragic and painful reminder that an ideology of hateful and religious intolerance can lead in an instant to irretrievable acts in death and suffering. As a nation we marched through legally sanctioned slavery, secession, civil war, reconstruction, kkk terror, internment of japaneseamerican citizens, jim crow and the Civil Rights Era in pursuit of equality. Progress has come through courage of individuals, not all of whom are remembered as they should be. You stand for the rule of law, People Protection and human dignity. We urge the United States department of justice, the federal bureau of investigation and appropriate virginia Law Enforcement officials to bring any and all people responsible for her killing to justice and we urge authorities to use all available resources to investigate other apparent crimes, including any federal or state paid crimes committed in charlottesville last weekend. The 60th anniversary year of the United States civil rights commission, we all must grapple with the violence in charlottesville is a bracing reminder the nations work to ensure equality is urgent and ongoing. White supremacy and religious intolerance dishonor National Commitments we have forged over time. That is, they demean america and americans and violence in the name of these ideologies must be met swiftly and forcefully with condemnation and unwavering and unified response. Chair Catherine Lehman said every american deserves to live confident in the expectation that his and her equal dignity will be respected and receive protection from government agencies. Last weeks violence driven by racial animus degrades our nation and merits swift, aggressive and comprehensive federal response. In america, we live by the rule of law. The law must prevail in charlottesville as in any city or town faced with similar violence. Sadly, we know that no law will bring back the fallen. But we live by symbols and Heather Heyer is a painful but an opening symbol that our nation must not depart from the fight for equality and human dignity. In the words of her neighbor, she lived her life like a bat and it was one of justice. On behalf of the commission, we urge the nation to really dedicate itself to walk that path. Thank you, Debo Adegbile. I will open to questions. We didnt have a motion. Having discussion before the motion. We have to have a motion first. I move we do but i have an amendment so i might not be the right person. I move we adopt a statement. Second. Discussion . Amendment. I move that we add the second paragraph at the very end the following sentence. Though we support peaceful protest and note that most of the counterdemonstrators were peaceful we condemn violence by anyone including violence by socalled antifa demonstrators, period. They dont call themselves that but antifascist demonstrators have been called that. Could you read the statement again . This is a sentence that would go at the end of the second paragraph. Though we support peaceful protests and note that most of the counterdemonstrators were peaceful, we condemn violence by anyone, including violence by socalled antifa demonstrators, period. Was this contemplated to make more clear what the statement already captures by suggesting the rule of law be applied . I think the statement does not make it clear there were protesters who were not among the nazis or kkk which we all condemn but were coming at it from the opposite direction and were also violent. Michael yaki. I certainly understand the motivation of the amendments, that violence in right wing groups should not justify violence, expressing the statement as a whole, i find it necessary and i will support the statement but i do not find it sufficient. If we were to put anything else in this statement, it should be a strong statement about the lack of leadership and courage and moral authority of the president of the United States in dealing with this situation. There is no there cannot be a situation where the president of the United States says that there are very fine people on both sides. There are no very fine people who are not sees, in the vanguard movement, people who train every day to provoke a race war and try to do just that in charlottesville. There cannot be a place for a president to do anything other than not just condemn what happens, a full force of the Office President and executive branch not just to prosecute those who became violent because violence is there ideology but to dig them out, root and branch, and other attorney generals before in our history, this is really where statements could be on method but i would prefer to have a unanimous statement from the commission. I do not support that or commissioner gail meriots amendment to this. If that is requiring unanimity i wont pay it because we know why this happened. We know what happened in charlottesville was a deliberate provocation, these people came armed and ready to do violence and battle because that is part of who they are. There are no very fine nazis. There are only people who are dedicated to relitigate a moral cause over 70 years ago by blood of the treasurer of this country and other countries throughout the world. I will support the statement as is. I will not support any changes to it but we as the commission should take to task this president who failed abysmally in providing clear direction and leadership and moral center for this nation in a situation where hate became the motivator. Make no mistake this is not racial intolerance, this is an ideology of hatred, hatred towards people of color, lgbts, the jewish community, this was not religious intolerance, these are people who chanted slogans aimed at members of the jewish faith, at members of the lgbt community. This is a good statement. I commend my fellow commissioner for putting it together but i got to say we could have gone so much further and given the fact we have a bar that has been set by people like senator bob corker and Mitch Mcconnell the past Strong Language condemning and questioning the leadership of this president i wish we could do the same. Commissioner gail meriot, i understand the statement and i understand a little about rioting. I am at a loss to understand why the first sentence in that paragraph doesnt generally cover your concern. It says as americans we are committed to the right to assemble peaceably but we condemn racial, ethnic and religious hatred, incitement and violence. That is a general statement but i dont see why that doesnt cover your concern . We all right differently. I wouldnt write it the same way just as you wouldnt. Consider again please why that first statement wouldnt cover it . Because read in context the statement as written makes it very clear we are condemning one side. Although i dont think it is appropriate to condemn both sides because there were lots of demonstrators, counterdemonstrators there who were simply making the point they should make, since i wont stand for nazis, kkk members and their views, there were some people on that side who were in fact violent. That is important to point out. The statement does not do so. I would oppose the amended language. First of all, i feel it is covered in the fourth paragraph where it says we urge authorities to use our resources to investigate other apparent crimes including federal, state, hate crimes that were committed. Second of all i feel very strongly there is a lack of moral equivalency. I have a problem because i feel that somehow is excusing the people who caused the violence to begin with. I lack evidence that there were significant numbers of counterdemonstrators who were in fact as violent as those who were inciting the violence to begin with. This is an important moment for the nation and for this commission. I welcome the careful thought and thinking of all of the commissioners, many of whom have given input into this statement that we are trying to negotiate to assure that for the full extent possible speak with a unified voice at a time when it seems circumstances in the country could reasonably have the expectation the United States commission on civil rights to the fullest extent possible would speak with one clarion voice. I think this statement does not condone violence of any kind and that is apparent from the language we have negotiated and that is on the page, i share karen narasakis concern that we be careful not to create false equivalency. It is one thing not to condone violence, the best and highest traditions of the fight for civil rights in this country have been a disciplined use of nonviolence in the face of extraordinary hate and violence and i think the marchers went to charlottesville in the context of that history. There are some circumstances where protests result in violence but i dont read anything in this statement as written to condone that violence and i think it is adequate to express the needs and on that basis i will not support the amendment. I also want to be clear, i was raised in the nonviolent civil rights tradition and strongly oppose violence and believe in nonviolent civil rights protests where necessary. I think the statement is a powerful statement of opposition to violence, opposition to racist ideology and return to the nations darkest past. I too oppose any language that would water down the sentiment that is extant in the statement is crafted and captures opposition to violence of all types. I would like to say is not the intention of this language to water down the sentiment in the statement as a whole. It very much is the intent of the proposed amendment, my intent, to make it clear that there was indeed violence by people against the nazis and kkk. Both need to be condemned. Commissioner michael yaki. I am sitting here in disbelief that this last statement, that people who used a car to mow down Peaceful Protesters should find any comfort in equivalency from the Us Commission on civil rights with regard to their actions by casting blame on people, groups and organizations that were out there peacefully protesting, whether some got carried away or not. Their intent and motivation and ideology is not motivated by hatred, not motivated by violence and it does terrible injustice to the memory of heather and her family for us to consider this amendment. I would hope commissioner gail meriot and commissioner Peter Kirsanow support the statement as drafted. I think it is a good statement. If their support for this has conditions, that amendment, then i will have no hesitation in starting to offer amendme