Progressive Vision.
Bold Action.
Iris Halpern testifying in front of the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee in support of Senate Bill 26-005, which aims to create a private right of action for damages against federal immigration enforcement agents who violate Coloradans' federal constitutional rights.
A lifelong, passionate fighter for civil, constitutional, and workplace rights, Iris is an attorney and partner at a nationally recognized social justice law firm, Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC.
She previously served as the Acting Supervisory Attorney at the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Denver. Before attending the University of California Berkeley School of Law, Iris worked for many years as a national organizer for the Service Employees International Union.
She is known for her groundbreaking litigation on behalf of transgender employees, sexual harassment victims, and librarians and teachers fired for refusing to implement book bans.
She represents undocumented immigrant workers who have been injured on the job or are facing wage theft, including victims of labor trafficking. Her work has included fighting for applicants and employees with disabilities who have been discriminated against by electronic algorithms and platforms, families whose loved ones have been subjected to excessive police force, and students who have been bullied or harassed because of their race, or been suspended or expelled from charter schools for using their First Amendment rights.
You can learn more about some of her work here: https://rmlawyers.com/attorneys/iris-halpern/.
Iris is running for House District 6 because she believes that the interests of this district's residents - the real people and their families who live here - deserve to have their voices and concerns heard and fought for at the Capitol. Today, big corporations and wealthy individuals increasingly dominate our politics, to the detriment of everyone else. She wants to serve you and bring her power, knowledge, and skills to making House District 6, and the state of Colorado, a bulwark against federal government abuses, dark money and corporate greed, and Gilded Age-level inequality. That means ending the practise of politics as usual, and making real change.
Iris on Why She is Running for House District 6
“I have spent my career fighting for economic and social justice, advocating for the protection of civil and constitutional rights and liberties, improved economic and employment conditions for workers, and standing up for communities whose voices are too often ignored. Now, I want to serve you and bring that fight on your behalf to the Capitol.
In this time of federal hostilities and attacks on our individual and collective rights, I fiercely believe that House District 6 and Colorado have a vital role to play as a beacon of hope, progress, and justice for the nation. Our state can be a model of how to protect and advance the rights and success of all its people. But that can only happen if we don’t empower the same wealthy corporations and billionaires who profit from the Trump Administration’s corruption and lawlessness, and we amplify the voices and concerns of the people of this District. I will work relentlessly to ensure that all communities are safe, respected, and empowered. That is why I am running to represent you in House District 6.”
Bills Iris worked on
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This bill, currently making it's way through the legislature, creates a private right of action against federal immigration enforcement agents for any violations of a victim's constitutional rights.
Headlines: Colorado Democrats advance bill to allow individuals to sue ICE agents | Colorado Newsline »
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This groundbreaking piece of civil rights legislation removed antiquated standards for judging harassment, eliminating the “severe or pervasive” requirement. In addition, the Act clarified the use of certain defenses to corporate liability for harassment, limited the use of non-disclosure agreements in discrimination cases, imposed record keeping requirements on employers, and modernized our disability accommodation laws in the workplace, among other changes to the Colorado Anti-Discrimation Act.
https://tsscolorado.com/new-bill-seeks-again-to-change-definition-of-harassment/
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This bill removed exemptions for domestic service workers from anti-harassment law, extended the filing window for employees to file with the Colorado Civil Rights Division to 300 days from six months, and provided for emotional distress and punitive damages for age discrimination claims similar to the damages allowed for other forms of discrimination in the workplace.
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In the face of an unprecedented wave of censorship across the country, we passed a law in this state last year which prohibits targeting books for removal based on ethnic or gendered materials, limited partisan and doctrinal considerations in circulation decisions, requires public libraries to establish policies for acquiring, retaining, displaying, and maintaining library resources, and protects library staff from retaliation for opposing unconstitutional book removals. The bill also characterized requests for the removal of books from a public library system as subject to the Colorado Open Records Act.
https://www.denverpost.com/2024/06/04/colorado-law-libraries-book-ban-requests/
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This Act revisited the standards for the discriminatory harassment of students, required school districts to adopt written policies and educate their students about how to report harassment and discrimination, provide training to district staff about harassment, and to provide supportive measures to a student experiencing harassment and discrimination.
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The bill is aimed at protecting individuals within police custody from the unfettered use of prone restraints when use of the position might induce injury or death and requires law enforcement agencies to provide proper training in the use of such restraints.
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