About

For nearly a century, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) has wielded legal action as a powerful engine of upward mobility for Latino immigrants and their families in the United States. LULAC’s courtroom advocacy dates back to the 1930s when it helped launch the first class-action lawsuit against segregated “Mexican schools” in Texas. In the 1940s, LULAC attorneys led landmark desegregation cases such as Mendez v. Westminster (1946), which ended a century of school segregation against Mexican-American children in California, and Delgado v. Bastrop ISD (1948), which forced Texas to shut down its dual school system for Latino students. These early legal victories dismantled official segregation in education and opened doors of opportunity for Latino students. LULAC also championed broader civil rights through litigation—most notably in Hernandez v. Texas (1954), where LULAC-backed lawyers won a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that recognized Mexican Americans as a distinct class entitled to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. By tearing down such systemic barriers, from segregated classrooms to all-Anglo juries, LULAC’s early legal efforts established that Latino communities could not be written out of America’s promise of equal justice and opportunity.

LULAC’s legal battles have continued into recent decades, breaking new ground in expanding civil rights and opportunity for Latino communities. In the late 20th century, LULAC fought to equalize educational resources: its class-action suit LULAC v. Clements challenged Texas’s neglect of predominantly Latino regions, leading to the South Texas Border Initiative and the creation of nine new public universities and colleges in underserved areas. Likewise, LULAC has defended fair political representation—LULAC v. Perry (2006) saw the organization challenge a gerrymandered Texas redistricting plan, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed that the map illegally diluted Hispanic voting strength by displacing thousands of Latino voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act. In recent years, LULAC has focused its litigation on protecting immigrant rights and families. It was the first to challenge a federal executive order that attempted to deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of immigrants, winning multiple court injunctions that safeguarded the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship. LULAC also helped halt an unlawful deportation order targeting refugees, ensuring due process and human dignity were upheld for those seeking asylum. Through each of these legal battles—historic and ongoing—LULAC’s advocacy has dismantled discriminatory policies and expanded opportunity, securing fair access to education, voting, and the full benefits of American life for Latino immigrant communities. As LULAC rolls out its Legal Defense Fund, this proud legacy of factual, results-driven advocacy serves as a rallying cry for public support: every courtroom victory underscores the critical need to invest in justice and equal opportunity for Latino families.