U.S. Department of Justice | Civil Rights Weekly Digest (Oct. 2021)

A federal grand jury in Baltimore, Maryland, has indicted a Texas man for sending a threatening communication to a Maryland doctor.

In recognition of World Mental Health Day, today the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) jointly issued a fact sheet to support students with mental health disabilities, their families, and their schools in the era of COVID-19. Along with the fact sheet, OCR released a letter to educators highlighting the civil rights obligations of schools and postsecondary institutions to students with mental health disabilities.

The Justice Department announced today that it has opened a statewide investigation into the conditions in the five secure juvenile correctional facilities run by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

Good afternoon.  My name is Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. I am joined by Ashley Hoff, United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas; Jennifer Lowery, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas; Nicholas Ganjei, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern Districts of Texas; and Chad Meacham, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

The Justice Department today announced that it is dismissing its Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) lawsuit against Stafford County, Virginia, because it achieved the relief it sought in the case. Specifically, in response to the department’s complaint, the County repealed ordinances that prevented the All Muslim Association of America (AMAA) from developing a religious cemetery for persons of the Islamic faith, approved the AMAA’s site plan for the cemetery, and, in a private settlement with the AMAA to resolve the AMAA’s lawsuit, agreed to pay $500,000 in damages to the AMAA.