Vanita Gupta

Vanita Gupta
Assistant United States Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division
Acting
Assumed office
2014
President Barack Obama
Preceded by Molly J. Moran
Personal details
Political party Democratic
Alma mater Yale University (B.A.)
New York University School of Law (J.D.)

Vanita Gupta is the acting assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division[1] and the top civil rights prosecutor for the United States Department of Justice.[2] Formerly, she was a civil rights lawyer and the Deputy Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), where she oversaw the ACLU's national criminal justice reform efforts.[3]

Early life

Gupta was born in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania to Indian immigrant parents.[4] She spent most of her childhood in England and France.[5] She is a graduate of Yale and New York University Law School, graduating from law school in 2001.[6]

Tulia, TX

Her first and most famous case, working for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), involved 40 African-Americans and 6 white Americans in Tulia, Texas, who had been convicted by an all-white jury on drug dealing charges.[7] In almost every case, the only evidence was the testimony of an undercover agent, Tom Coleman. Coleman did not use wiretaps, and records showed that he had "filed shoddy reports",[8] and had a previous misdemeanor charge for stealing gasoline from a county pump.[8] Gupta won the release of all of the defendants in 2003, four years after they were jailed, then negotiated a $5 million settlement for those arrested.[7]

Hutto

In 2007, after becoming a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, Gupta filed a lawsuit that was subsequently settled with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency on detention conditions for asylum seekers.[9] In August 2007, a landmark agreement was reached between ACLU and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under which the conditions in the T. Don Hutto detention center improved and a number of children from the center were released.[9]

On August 6, 2009, the Department of Homeland Security announced intentions to improve the nation's immigration detention system, including ending family detention at the T. Don Hutto family detention center in Taylor, Texas.[10]

Department of Justice

Gupta was chosen by President Barack Obama for the vacant position of United States Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division in October 2014.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Holder, Eric (14 Oct 2014). "Attorney General Holder Announces Vanita Gupta to Serve as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division". United States Department of Justice. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Robertson, Campbell; Dewan, Shaila; Apuzzo, Matt (7 March 2015). "Ferguson Became Symbol, but Bias Knows No Border". New York Times Company. New York Times. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Biography of Vanita Gupta, The Huffington Post Blog Contributor". The Huffington Post. Retrieved November 19, 2010.
  4. 1 2 http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-to-nominate-aclu-lawyer-to-lead-justice-departments-civil-rights-division/2014/10/15/3630985e-5472-11e4-892e-602188e70e9c_story.html
  5. ↑ Holly Bailey (November 2, 2014). "Meet the woman spearheading the federal probe of Ferguson". Yahoo news. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
  6. ↑ Lynda Richardson (April 16, 2003). "PUBLIC LIVES; Young Lawyer, Old Issue: Seeking Social Justice". The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
  7. 1 2 M. Chooki (December 17, 2004). "India Abroad Awards, Bhardwaj is ‘India Abroad Person of the Year,’ Gupta gets Special Award". News India-Times.com. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
  8. 1 2 Jim Yardley (August 29, 2002). "Texas Attorney General Opens An Inquiry Into '99 Drug Sweep". The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
  9. 1 2 "Landmark Settlement Announced in Federal Lawsuit Challenging Conditions at Immigrant Detention Center in Texas". American Civil Liberties Union. August 27, 2007. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
  10. ↑ Aziz Haniffa (August 7, 2009). "Major victory for Indian American lawyer". Washington DC: Rediff. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
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