Sherrilyn Ifill is president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). From 1993 to 2013, she taught at University of Maryland School of Law, where she also litigated and consulted on civil rights cases and co-founded a legal clinic to remove legal barriers to formerly incarcerated persons. Ifill was previously an assistant counsel at LDF, where she litigated numerous voting rights cases, and a fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union. She authored On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century. Ifill’s board service includes the Open Society Foundations, Equal Justice Works, National Constitution Center, and Learning Policy Institute.
Previously
In far too many instances, municipal courts are the first step on the road to ruin—especially for poor people—thanks to the combined effects of the courts’ relentless need for...
As high-profile episodes of violence have highlighted the issue of use of excessive force and mistreatment of people of color by police, what is the way forward for law enforc...