2009

Oscar Grant III, 22, was shot in the back and killed by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle at the Fruitvale station in Oakland in the early hours of New Year's Day. Grant was face-down and restrained when shot. The killing was captured on multiple bystander videos. Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter — the first California officer convicted for an on-duty killing in decades — and served 11 months.

Thousands took to the streets of Oakland following Oscar Grant's killing and Mehserle's initial non-arrest. Protests on January 7–8 included property destruction downtown. Demonstrators demanded Mehserle's arrest; he was taken into custody in Nevada on January 13. The 2010 film 'Fruitvale Station' (released 2013) later brought national attention. The case became a founding reference point for accountability campaigns.

Thousands took to Oakland streets after Oscar Grant's killing and Mehserle's initial non-arrest. January 7-8 protests included downtown property destruction. Mehserle was arrested in Nevada on January 13. The case became a founding reference point for police accountability campaigns.

The Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in Ricci v. DeStefano that New Haven, Connecticut violated Title VII by discarding a firefighter promotion exam after no Black candidates passed. The ruling restricted employers' ability to remedy disparate-impact discrimination. Civil rights advocates warned it would chill voluntary affirmative action and make it harder to address structural racial barriers in employment. The case arose in the context of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings.

President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, expanding federal hate crime law to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, and giving DOJ authority to prosecute racially motivated crimes without requiring a violation of a federally protected activity. Named partly for James Byrd Jr., the Black Texan man dragged to death in 1998, the law was a decade-long legislative victory for civil rights advocates.

President Obama signed the law expanding federal hate crime coverage to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, and giving DOJ authority to prosecute racially motivated crimes. Named partly for James Byrd Jr., the Black Texan dragged to death in 1998, it was a decade-long legislative victory.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled the Army Corps of Engineers was liable for flooding in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward due to negligent maintenance of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet canal. Independent investigations found levee failures resulted from engineering design flaws, not storm surge alone.

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested by Cambridge, Massachusetts officer James Crowley at his own home after a neighbor called police to report a break-in. Gates had forced his own door after a trip abroad. He was charged with disorderly conduct, charges later dropped. President Obama commented the police had 'acted stupidly,' triggering a national debate, and hosted a 'beer summit' at the White House.

The scholar's arrest at his own home sparks a national conversation on policing.