KUNM Alexandra Smith is ACLU New Mexico’s legal director and said vulnerable communities bear the brunt of unconstitutional policing. “These groups have been most affected by police misconduct thus far and so they have the most to gain by police reform,” Smith said. “We think they should have a place at the table and be […]
Category: In the News
ABQ Journal: City agrees to $17M in gender pay settlement
By Jessica Dyer / Journal Staff WriterPublished: Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022 at 5:17PM The city of Albuquerque has agreed to pay $17 million to settle a collective action lawsuit brought by female employees who claimed the city “systematically” pays women less than their male colleagues. This is about righting a decade old wrong, and ensuring […]
Source New Mexico: Prisoner Rights
Leaked emails detail a medical staffing crisis that’s worsening at MDC outside Albuquerque By: Austin Fisher Inmates are people, and they deserve humane conditions, said attorney Alexandra Freedman Smith, who is representing people jailed at MDC. They have constitutional rights to humane treatment, too, she added. “These are people who are in jail, many of […]
Source New Mexico: Prisoner Rights, Jail is hemorrhaging medical staff
Jail is hemorrhaging medical staff, doesn’t have a doctor, court documents show Bernalillo County farmed out jail medical care to a corporation with a long history of lawsuits alleging abuse and neglect in NM and beyond By: Austin Fisher […] The longtime staff shortage reached a crisis point that is putting inmates in danger, said […]
ABQ Journal: City should heed its own call to ‘walk the walk’ on gender pay
Mayor Tim Keller announced last month he was tightening down a program giving vendors competing for city contracts a preference if the disparity between salaries of their male and female employees did not exceed 7%. The original incentive program to combat pay inequity was designed by activist Martha Burk and sponsored by City Councilor Diane […]
City of Albuquerque tries to decertify a class action lawsuit for gender pay equity
The City of Albuquerque filed a motion last week to try to prevent a class action lawsuit that alleges gender pay discrimination. About 600 women joined four original plaintiffs in 2020 to create a class action lawsuit to seek redress for alleged gender pay discrimination. The original four plaintiffs filed their suit in 2018. Susan […]
ABQ Faces Class-Action Suit over Disparity in Pay for Women
The City of Albuquerque is facing a class-action lawsuit, filed by female employees who say they have been paid less than their male counterparts for years. The suit was filed in 2018, but this month a state district judge ruled that the suit can include any classified female employee who worked at the city between […]
Class-action Lawsuit Claims City of Albuquerque Paid Women Less than Men
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.- The City of Albuquerque is facing a class action lawsuit from five women who say they are being paid less than men for doing the same job. The employees claim the city is violating the New Mexico Fair Pay for Women Act. Learn more from KOB4
More Women Expected to Join Suit Against City
A lawsuit alleging that women employed by the city of Albuquerque have been paid less than their male counterparts has been certified for class action status. Second Judicial District Court Judge Clay Campbell noted the decision in a July 24 letter. The city of Albuquerque is named as the defendant. By Rick Nathanson / Journal […]
The Duran decree: A prisoner’s quest for decent treatment brought reform
By Phaedra Haywood phaywood@sfnewmexican.com Credit for the most significant penal reform in New Mexico history belongs not to a lawyer or politician but to a prisoner named Dwight Duran. […] But Albuquerque attorney Alexandra Freedman Smith — David Freedman’s daughter, who became lead counsel on the case in 2016 — said that’s no longer an […]