jump to navigation search mexican american legal defense and educational fund type non profit industry civil rights founded 1968 headquarters los angeles california key people henry solano interim president & general counsel thomas a. saenz president & general counsel august 2009 number of employees 50 website maldef.org the mexican american legal defense and educational fund maldef is a national non profit civil rights organization formed in 1968 to protect the rights of latinos in the united states . 1 founded in san antonio texas it is currently headquartered in los angeles california and maintains regional offices in sacramento san antonio chicago and washington d.c. 2 contents 1 background 2 campaigns 3 staff 4 see also 5 references 6 external links background edit maldef was founded in san antonio in 1968 . with the help of the league of united latin american citizens lulac and the naacp legal defense fund ldf maldef got a 2.2 million grant from the ford foundation . 2 the grant provided scholarships for more mexican american lawyers . in its first three years maldef handled mostly legal aid cases . then maldef took part in employment discrimination and school funding cases with ldf including supreme court cases through friend of the court briefs . demetrio rodriguez et al. v. san antonio independent school district was a defeat with the court ruling against equal financing of education . white et al. v. regester et al. was an important victory . the case created single member districts for texas county city council and school board districts ending at large voting that had weakened minority voting power . in 1989 maldef won in edgewood independent school district v. state of texas . the texas supreme court found the state s financing of education unconstitutional and ordered the legislature to change it . 3 this led to the robin hood funding system where wealthier school districts had to give to a fund for poorer districts . this did not lead to educational equality though since wealthy districts could choose to spend even more on themselves . campaigns edit maldef has set up an education litigation project filed on behalf of undocumented parents children barred from public schools . in plyler v. doe the supreme court held these children protected by the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment . 4 this would not be the last time maldef filed suit for equal opportunity for education . in lulac et al. v. richards et al. a 1987 class action lawsuit charged the state of texas with discrimination against mexican americans in south texas because of inadequate funding of colleges . in the university of texas system the ut campus in austin historically the campus attended by more children of the state s elites actually received more funding than all other campuses combined . the jury did not find the state guilty of discrimination but did find the legislature failed to establish first class colleges and universities elsewhere in the state . looking to avoid further embarrassing suits the legislature passed the south texas initiative to improve university of texas system schools in brownsville edinburg san antonio and el paso and texas a & m university system branches in corpus christi laredo and kingsville . the border region higher education council helped pass the legislation and monitored the program s progress . today the situation has somewhat improved though ut austin still receives a disproportionate share of funding . maldef along with the aclu sued los angeles county in 1981 accusing the county of arranging voting districts to frustrate hispanic political power . considerable changes in the district lines resulted . 1 to get a fair share of school funding for downtown los angeles schools maldef filed a lawsuit in 1992 against the los angeles unified school district . 1 in gi forum of texas v. perry maldef successfully challenged the texas redistricting plan before the u.s. supreme court . the new york times described it as the most important voting rights case of the decade rejecting the statewide gerrymandering claim brought by other plaintiffs while accepting the voting rights act challenge in southwestern texas brought by the mexican american legal defense and educational fund . 5 the case resulted in new lines drawn for texas 23rd congressional district and a special election where another maldef suit opened the polls early resulting in the latino community having the opportunity to elect its candidate of choice to congress . in 2010 the fund strongly opposed arizona sb1070 6 the toughest and broadest anti illegal immigration measure seen in the u.s. in generations . 7 the fund said it might challenge the constitutionality of the law . 6 on october 27 2010 maldef achieved another victory in gonzalez v. state of arizona striking down an arizona law that restricted voter registration by requiring proof of american citizenship . 8 maldef had challenged the 2004 law also known as proposition 200 on grounds that it was unconstitutional and in violation of federal law because it forced voters to meet onerous new identification requirements at the polls and imposed unnecessary paperwork requirements on those seeking to register to vote . staff edit on march 26 2009 maldef s president and general counsel john trasvi a was announced as president obama s nominee to be assistant secretary of the office of fair housing and equal opportunity in the u.s. department of housing and urban development . 9 10 11 with trasvi a s departure maldef announced henry solano a partner in the law firm dewey & leboeuf and former u.s. attorney for the district of colorado would serve as interim president and general counsel during the search for a permanent replacement ; solano said he was not a candidate for the permanent position . 12 13 14 on july 14 2009 maldef announced the selection of thomas saenz chief counsel to los angeles mayor antonio villaraigosa as maldef s new president and general counsel . 15 16 see also edit lnesc naleo nclr american gi forum svrep lulac labor council for latin american advancement references edit a b c maldef entry in los angeles a to z an encyclopedia of the city and county by leonard and dale pitt published by uc press in 1997 . a b maldef about maldef . http www.tshaonline.org handbook online articles jom01 plyler v. doe . retrieved 23 december 2011 . greenhouse linda june 29 2006 . justices uphold most remapping in texas by g.o.p. . new york times . retrieved 23 december 2011 . a b ariz. lawmakers pass controversial illegal immigration bill . kpho . associated press . april 20 2010 . archibold randal c. april 24 2010 . u.s. s toughest immigration law is signed in arizona . the new york times . p. 1 . egelko bob june 27 2011 . state can t ask voters for citizenship proof . san francisco chronicle . retrieved 23 december 2011 . president obama announces more key administration posts white house press release march 26 2009 . m s latinos en altos cargos de gobierno la opini n march 28 2009 . philip rucker obama taps mabus for navy secretary washingtonpost.com march 27 2009 . former colorado u.s. attorney general named head of maldef maldef press release april 9 2009 . pilar marrero nuevo jefe en maldef la opini n april 7 2009 . maldef appoints henry solano interim director metropolitan news enterprise april 10 2009 . phil willon l.a. mayor s chief counsel tapped to lead maldef los angeles times july 15 2009 . thomas a. saenz counsel to los angeles mayor named maldef president and general counsel maldef press release july 14 2009 . external links edit maldef website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title mexican american legal defense and educational fund & oldid 679284885 categories 1968 establishments in texascivil liberties advocacy groups in the united statescivil rights organizations in the united stateslegal advocacy organizations in the united statesmexican american organizationsnon profit organizations based in california navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 3 september 2015 at 16 47 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement 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