Norton Files Amendment to Prevent States from Engaging in Racial Profiling

WASHINGTON, D.C. – (RealEstateRama) — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) filed an amendment to the fiscal year 2018 Transportation, Housing And Urban Development Appropriations bill to prohibit states that receive federal transportation funding from engaging in unconstitutional profiling based on physical characteristics.

Norton said the Supreme Court has stated that racial profiling violates both equal protection and title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and therefore her amendment states that none of the funds in the transportation title could be used in contravention of the Fifth or Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Norton’s amendment previously unanimously passed by voice vote on the House floor and was included in the fiscal year 2015 omnibus appropriations bill, which was signed into law in December 2014.

“Despite heightened awareness of racial profiling throughout the country, we continue to see disproportionate stops of African Americans and other people of color by law enforcement officials,” Norton said. “My amendment is a straightforward attempt to reduce racial profiling by local law enforcement by holding them accountable and putting their federal funding on the line if they engage in unconstitutional profiling.”

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