Archive for category: Amicus

• Does Publishing Teacher Rankings Implicate Privacy Concerns?

  Amicus, Education, Labor and Employment March 6, 2012 10:43 am 1 comment

  It is reasonably foreseeable that parents will try to use this information to pressure their children’s schools into firing certain teachers or to assign their children to particular classrooms – actions which will not serve the broader purpose of improving instruction….The level of detail with which the data has been released can only serve to publicly humiliate teachers and is only reasonably necessary for school administrators’ use, not the general public.

   

• The Fifth Circuit's Troubling Abortion Ruling

  Amicus, Issue Areas, Reproductive Rights February 20, 2012 1:31 pm no comments

  The United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on January 10 upheld a Texas law requiring doctors to show sonograms to patients seeking abortions. The decision functions as an unfortunate emblem of the court’s tendency to treat abortions as quasi-criminal acts rather than a legal medical procedures and improperly infringes upon the privacy and autonomy of patients’ and doctors’. Two key ideas underlie the court’s reasoning in this case: 1) the unborn are citizens of the state, and 2) legislation of this kind is reasonably calculated and reasonably necessary to ensure mature and informed decisions by would-be mothers.

   

• Establishment Clause Backlash: Disgruntled Florists Unite Against Student Challenger

  Amicus, By Mike Sacchet, First Amendment January 23, 2012 11:30 pm 7 comments

  While it remains unclear whether additional litigation will ensue as a result of the florists’ discrimination against Ahlquist, one thing remains certain: student-plaintiffs often face backlash from a myriad of sources within their local communities in response to their Establishment Clause challenges. Thankfully, though, students such as Jessica Ahlquist are courageous enough to stand up for their First Amendment rights in the face of such community hostility.

   

• Article: Xenomorph!! – Indians, Latina/os, and the Alien Morphology of Arizona Senate Bill 1070 – by Robert F. Castro

  Amicus, Outside Author, Race and Immigration September 16, 2011 3:12 pm 1 comment

  The national debate over illegal immigration has been dramatically altered since 9/11. In his book The Latino Threat, Leo R. Chavez argues that Latina/o immigrants—including those U.S. populations that physically resemble them—have been socially constructed as grave risks to the United States. Arizona Senate Bill 1070 typifies the aggressive backlash that recently occurred in response to this perceived threat.

   

• Article: A Matter of Life & Death: Advocates in New York Respond to Medical Repatriation

  Amicus, Issue Areas, Outside Author, Race and Immigration February 4, 2011 7:02 pm no comments

  On the afternoon of February 28, 2000, Luis Alberto Jiménez was returning home from work when he was hit by a drunk driver in a stolen van near Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Mr. Jiménez was rushed to Martin Memorial Hospital Center (“Martin Memorial”), where he was stabilized, but only after [...]

   

• Article: Teens, Porn, and Video Games — Is it Time to Rethink Ginsberg?

  Amicus, First Amendment, Issue Areas, Outside Author October 30, 2010 9:56 pm no comments

  The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association, a Ninth Circuit decision that struck down, on First Amendment grounds, a California statute prohibiting the sale or rental of certain “violent video games” to minors. In finding the California statute unconstitutional, the Court of Appeals distinguished Ginsberg [...]

   

• Article: Using Impact Litigation As A Tool For Social Change: Jimmy Doe: A Case Study – By Lori Turner

  Amicus, Courts, Issue Areas, Outside Author August 10, 2010 7:05 am 2 comments

  By Lori Turner I. INTRODUCTION “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.” -Louis L’Amour As civil rights lawyers, we try to get the biggest bang for our buck by aiming impact litigation to bring about the institutional reforms that will affect [...]

   

• Article: Bad Faith Exception to Prosecutorial Immunity for Brady Violations – By Bennett Gershman

  Amicus, Courts, Issue Areas, Outside Author August 10, 2010 6:58 am no comments

  By Bennett L. Gershman Introduction: Imbler v. Pachtman Thirty-Four Years Later For those of us who teach and write about the conduct of prosecutors, reading Imbler v. Pachtman thirty-four years later is a profoundly disturbing experience. Imbler is the linchpin for the doctrine that affords prosecutors absolute immunity from civil [...]

   

• Article: Ricci v. DeStefano: Declaring Civil War within Title VII – By William Yeomans

  Amicus, Courts, Issue Areas, Labor and Employment, Outside Author, Race and Immigration February 25, 2010 8:19 am 2 comments

  It is the height of folly to make hard and fast predictions about the impact of freshly minted Supreme Court decisions, especially when the Court announces a new standard. Yet it is safe to predict that Ricci v. DeStefano, while not as devastating as some advocates have feared, will discourage [...]

   

• Article: Making Employment Civil Rights Real – by Stephen Churchill

  Amicus, Issue Areas, Labor and Employment, Outside Author, Race and Immigration February 25, 2010 8:17 am 1 comment

  When Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, it was heralded as a long-overdue measure to eradicate discrimination. The law has had a profound effect on the workplace, both by helping to establish a public ethic against discrimination and by providing a mechanism by which victims of [...]