State and Local Civil Rights Resources

Protection of civil rights is fundamental to a functioning democracy. Public confidence in a healthy democracy derives from, and relies on, participants’ experience of fair and equal treatment at the hands of government and under law. Without robust protection for fairness and equality before the law, democratic institutions that rely on public participation, freedom of assembly, and free expression cannot thrive. And all other rights are placed at risk.

We are currently facing a crisis in rights protection and actual weaponization of these rights by our federal government against communities. When the rights to equal protection and fairness enshrined in our nation’s Constitution and federal civil rights framework are threatened so too is public confidence in our democracy itself. Building capacity to redress that injury to our nation’s effective governance is both urgent and eminently possible.

The Edley Center on Law & Democracy engages policymakers and communities to assess their current structures against a necessary framework sufficient to meet the quantum of need, identify achievable interventions, and develop strategies and coalitions to close those gaps. Together with policymakers and communities, we work to build durable systems across the country, translating rights on paper into equality and fair process in practice. When we strengthen systems that protect and benefit all people equally, we build toward a democracy that is genuinely for all and accountable to all.

As part of this initiative, we have assembled tools, resources, and guides for that work, some of which this page highlights and describes.

Building for the Future: Ensuring Fair and Equal Treatment Under Law

The American Civil Rights Movement fundamentally transformed the role of government in ensuring a minimum threshold of nondiscrimination for all Americans. The resulting federal infrastructure created a national standard of legal protections and enforcement mechanisms, anchored by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and subsequent legislation, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. But in a relatively short period of time, the second Trump Administration has systematically dismantled that backstop and what remains has been weaponized.1

The result is a widening civil rights enforcement gap, compounded by the significant increase in civil rights complaints filed with state and local agencies since January 2025. Amid widespread recognition that greater action is needed to address and prevent discrimination under state and federal law, states and localities have untapped capacity to fill these crucial gaps in rights protection and democracy health.

The Imperative: Bolstering State Civil Rights Protections and Infrastructure

To assist state policymakers and communities in assessing their current framework and identifying strategic opportunities, the Edley Center has developed a model that lays out the essential elements of a fully realized state civil rights infrastructure. Rooted in best practices and informed by robust multi-state analysis, those components broadly include:

• Comprehensive legal protections against discrimination;
• Well-resourced, empowered, and independent state enforcement entities charged with timely investigating and resolving all civil rights complaints received;
• Clear mechanisms to regularly collect and analyze relevant data to better measure and inform civil rights compliance and enforcement, as well as agency oversight; and,
• Resilient funding mechanisms that do not rely on federal sources.

Each component of this framework is a critical building block of a state’s broader infrastructure, including its local cities and counties. Nearly every state has at least one element in place; some have many more, but none have all. Using this model as a guidepost, the Edley Center provides support and resources for state and local leaders to shore up protections and build resilient systems that protect and advance our nation’s longstanding aspiration of fair and equal treatment under the law.

(NEW) Searchable Tracker of Key Recently Enacted State Civil Rights Legislation

Even as the federal government is moving swiftly to roll back critical and long-standing protections for equal opportunity and access to basic services for all, many states have moved to strengthen civil rights protections, enforcement authority, and infrastructure through state legislative changes.

The Edley Center’s searchable tracker highlights many key state-level civil and constitutional rights laws passed principally between 2023 and 2026, including the main features of each bill and the substantive focus of the reforms to advance civil rights. For example, the tracker supports searches for legislation advancing equal opportunity related to race, immigration, disability, LGBTQIA+, and gender along with legislation advancing voting, housing, reproductive rights, and much more.

The tracker and our searchable state-by-state map also allow identification of the type of legislative reform, including whether it expands civil and constitutional rights, strengthens the infrastructure for protecting such rights, and/or increases enforcement authority.

The Edley Center welcomes information about additional civil and constitutional rights reforms in every state that should be included and will periodically update this resource with new key legislative developments.

*Please note that this resource does not track whether the legislation has been implemented, challenged, or otherwise amended after the initial passage date.

(NEW) Resources for State Legislative and Policy Development

Because no state has built its state rights infrastructure with an expectation of an absent or weaponized federal enforcement apparatus, every state has room for growth in its delivery of rights protection for equal treatment of all residents. The Edley Center’s resources for state policymakers identify areas for consideration when building resilient state civil rights enforcement apparatuses. In addition, the Edley Center shares exemplar policy options and strategic interventions for state legislatures. The third resource offers considerations for strengthening state attorney general civil rights offices.