Lawyer-led rights group to meet in the Alamo City

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which works to promote and protect the rights of 45 million Latinos living in the United States, will celebrate four decades of work on April 24 by hosting its 40th anniversary conference at the downtown campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio. John Trasvina, the organization’s president and general counsel, and Phil Hardberger, San Antonio’s mayor, will deliver opening remarks. Panel discussions on voting rights, education, employment and immigrants’ rights, as well as a video chronicling MALDEF’s 40-year history, will highlight the day. Among MALDEF’s notable victories over the years was the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2006 decision League of United Latin American Citizens, et al. v. Perry, et al., in which the court said that the Texas Legislature’s 2003 congressional redistricting plan discriminated against Latino voters in Congressional District 23.

-- Mary Alice Robbins