Issue Position: Civil Rights

Issue Position

As Chief of the Civil Rights Division, Maura brought the nation's first civil rights case by a state against a subprime lender to hold it accountable for charging minority borrowers more for the same mortgages. She knows that abusive and discriminatory lending practices strip equity out of communities and leave neighborhoods trapped in poverty. She will continue to fight to end bias in lending practices and outcomes.

Maura successfully defended the state's racial imbalance law, which allows school districts to voluntary integrate as a means of closing achievement gaps. She will continue to fight for access to educational opportunities for all residents.

Over her career, Maura has argued or overseen hundreds of housing discrimination cases on behalf of people who were denied an apartment because of their disability, lead paint, children, or because they use a Section 8 voucher or other form of public assistance. Maura took those cases on and worked closely with fair housing organizations and civil rights groups to both enforce and train on fair housing laws. She will continue to fight for strong enforcement of fair housing laws.

Maura has prosecuted people who committed hate crimes and obtained civil rights injunctions to protect victims who were targeted because of their race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity. She also trained police and law enforcement on civil rights laws and hate crimes.

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