The partition that separates diners from the inner workings of the restaurant industry toppled for Saru Jayaraman shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Fekkak Mamdouh, one of the headwaiters of the restaurant housed on the top floor of the World Trade Center, approached Jayaraman seven months after the attacks. His former boss deemed him and his former crew “not experienced enough” to work in his new Times Square restaurant. Jayaraman, a 27-year-old organizer of immigrant women, took up the case to advocate for the displaced workers, organized protests and won—most of the workers were awarded the good jobs their former boss promised.

Texas AFL-CIO Communications Director Ed Sills sends us this report from his daily e-mail newsletter. Sign up for the Texas AFL-CIO E-News at labor@texasaflcio.org.   

A three-judge federal panel ruled Tuesday that Texas’ redrawing of political boundaries for Congress and the legislature discriminated against Hispanics and must be set aside under the federal Voting Rights Act.

Sarah Seltzer writes for Alternet and other online publications and sends us this. Follow Sarah on Twitter.

As the AFL-CIO documented in a study, the situation for immigrants in Alabama has grown increasingly dire: A “humanitarian crisis” has resulted from a Draconian anti-immigration law, HB 56, one of the nation’s harshest.

Hundreds of people will show their support outside the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, when the High Court hears oral arguments in what could become the largest class-action civil rights suit in U.S. history.