Other Civil Rights

Highlights of Our Work

Advancing Justice-LA staff (L:R) Aman Thind, Laboni Hoq, Meeran Mahmud, and Christopher Lapinig at Los Angeles International Airport, during efforts to help passengers affected by the Muslim travel ban in January 2017. 

In 2015, Advancing Justice-LA, with the ACLU of Southern California, the Law Office of Robert Rubin, and Sidley Austin, LLP sued the City of Fullerton for violating the California Voting Rights Act. The lawsuit alleged that the city's “at-large” system for electing city council members denied large segments of the community — especially Asian Americans — a voice in how their city is governed. “At-large” voting meant all eligible voters in the city selected elected officials from the same pool of candidates. In contrast, district-based voting divided the city council seats into smaller districts, which allows for a more local approach. Despite nearly a quarter of all eligible voters in Fullerton being Asian American, no Asian Americans served on the five-person city council. Within just a few months of filing the lawsuit, the city of Fullerton agreed to change from an “at-large” voting system to designing a “district-based” approach, which ensured the vote of communities of interest, such as Asian Americans, was not diluted by folding it into a city-wide voting population. Today, Fullerton’s city council elections are district-based.