New York, NY, September 20, 2000 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and a coalition of civil rights organizations today filed an amicus curiae brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to leave intact a key interpretation of the Constitution that has served as a basis for fundamental civil rights laws. Filed in association with People for the American Way Foundation and joined by 11 other national civil rights organizations, the ADL brief strongly supports a broad reading of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, an essential basis for the landmark civil rights statutes of the 1960s and for national hate crimes laws now pending before Congress.

"In recent years the Supreme Court has struck down important federal civil rights legislation by relying on a narrow interpretation of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause," said Howard P. Berkowitz, ADL National Chairman, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "We believe the court’s constricted view of the Commerce Clause could undermine existing civil rights laws and limit the power of Congress to enact anti-discrimination laws in the future."

The Supreme Court has indicated that it will reconsider its long-accepted interpretation of the Commerce Clause in Solid Waste Agency vs. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The case involves congressional authority in regulating and protecting wetlands and migratory birds through the Clean Water Act. The specific issue before the Court will be whether to continue to examine congressional statutes based on the Commerce Clause to determine if the types of actions to be regulated, taken together, have a substantial effect on interstate commerce.

"While this is not a ‘pure’ civil rights case, this broad coalition of national organizations agreed an essential principle was at stake – that any further erosion of constitutional principles would jeopardize existing civil rights statutes and congressional authority to expand hate crime and anti-discrimination laws," said Mr. Berkowitz and Mr. Foxman.

Other organizations joining in the brief include American Association of University Women, Human Rights Campaign, India Abroad Center for Political Awareness, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, National Conference for Communities and Justice, National Council of Jewish Women, National Federation of Filipino Americans, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Women’s Law Center and National Urban League. The brief was prepared for ADL by Martin E. Karlinsky, a partner at Rosenman & Colin in New York.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.