Amicus Blog
2019 Ames Moot Court Finals Live Blog
Welcome to the 2019 Ames Final, live from Austin Hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts! Live coverage begins at 7:30pm. The following information is courtesy of the HLS BSAs. You can see all of tonight’s information, including copies of the briefs, here. The Ames...
read more
A Civil Rights Challenge to Standardized Testing in College Admissions
Civil rights lawyers recently sent a demand letter to the University of California stating that they will sue unless the school stops considering SAT and ACT scores in its admissions process. In their letter, they allege that the SAT and ACT are little more than a...
read more
This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: November 11, 2019
This week, a federal judge invalidated a Trump Administration policy that would have limited the availability of abortion services, and nearly 500 incarcerated people in Oklahoma were released from prison. Also, following elections in several states including Kentucky and Virginia, several candidates were elected who had campaigned on platforms related to civil rights.
read more
Text and Purpose in the Supreme Court’s Title VII Cases
On October 8th, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for three cases, Bockstock v. Clayton County, Georgia, Altitude Express v. Zarda, and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, each of which asks whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids employement discrimination “because of . . . sex” encompasses discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. All three cases pit the text of Title VII against the intentions of its drafters, who all parties agree, did not specifically intend to protect LGBT individuals.
read more
Nonprofits, DAFs, and Campaigns: A Call for More Transparency in Ideological Nonprofits
In light of today’s settlement against the Trump Foundation as well as recent comments by billionaire philanthropist Kat Taylor, it is worth considering the role of Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) and nonprofit money in politics. In particular, increased disclosure requirements for 501(c)(3) entities, including DAFs, can provide an achievable, moderate, reform.
read more
LGBTQ+ Panic: The Dark-Ages Defense Strategy You Didn’t Know Existed
At its core, the LGBTQ+ Panic Defense stands for the idea that LGBTQ+ community members are somehow at fault for violence against them simply because of their gender identity or sexual orientation, and that the lives of LGBTQ+ community members are worth less than the lives of cisgender and heterosexual individuals.
read more
States are Protecting Animal-Based Agriculture at the Expense of the First Amendment
The legislation that has surfaced in approximately twenty-five states either fines or criminally sanctions plant-based or cell-based producers that label their products with words like “meat” and “milk,” even if qualified by words like “vegan,” “almond,” or “cell-based.” Instead of violating the First Amendment to protect animal-based agriculture, authorities should instead direct resources towards a just transition for agriculture stakeholders.
read more
This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: November 4, 2019
This week’s roundup is co-authored by Amanda Epstein and Matthew Meyer. This week, hundreds of New Yorkers gathered to protest police brutality on the subway after a fare evasion crackdown, and a federal judge blocked a policy that would preclude immigrants without...
read more
Student Athlete Compensation is a Civil Rights and Racial Justice Issue
As the NCAA charts its path forward, it’s critical that policymakers, activists, and the public seek strategies that highlight the necessity of racial justice and civil rights for student athletes in recognition of the highly racialized nature of NCAA exploitation. While the economic reality of student athletes is stark, trying to address only the economic nature of the exploitation without supporting a broader set student athletes’ civil rights will generate solutions that only address part of the NCAA’s oppressive system.
read more
Student Workers are Employees. The NLRB Should Agree.
The National Labor Relations Board recently proposed a new rule which would categorically exclude “students who perform any services for compensation, including, but not limited to, teaching or research, at a private college or university in connection with their studies” from being considered employees for the purposes of the National Labor Relations Act. The Board’s proposed rule is both illogical and likely to cause needless harm to student workers.
read more
SEARCHING FOR TRUTH, NOT CONVICTIONS
There are dozens of critical moments during a criminal proceeding in which prosecutors across states have complete control over a defendant’s life. From setting bail to shaping plea deals, prosecutors exercise power over millions of people based on their individual...
read more
This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: October 28, 2019
Welcome to This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. This week, researchers reported that a popular medical algorithm used to predict which patients will benefit from extra medical care dramatically underestimates the health needs of the sickest black patients....
read more
CR-CL's annual HLS Ames Final Live-blog is LIVE with blow-by-blow commentary by Nicole Franklin as the student competitors face-off before a panel of judges, including Judge Merrick Garland! https://harvardcrcl.org/2019-ames-moot-court-finals-live-blog/.
In light of today's finding against the Trump foundation, I've written a post for the @HarvardCRCL Amicus blog on the importance of transparency in ideological nonprofits. https://harvardcrcl.org/nonprofits-dafs-and-campaigns-a-call-for-more-transparency-in-ideological-nonprofits/ https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold/status/1192535254919237632
Great to talk with @HarvardCRCL (where I was a staffer 30 years ago -- oy) about the LGBTQ discrimination cases before SCOTUS https://twitter.com/jaredodessky/status/1192481402916409344
For @HarvardCRCL, @emilythemorrow and I spoke to James Esseks of the @ACLU LGBT & HIV Project about his thoughts coming out of oral argument for the Title VII LGBTQ cases before the Supreme Court https://harvardcrcl.org/taking-liberties-episode-9/
Annie Forestiere exposes the reality of a little-known, but often invoked, legal defense that allows defendants to escape full culpability for crimes against victims simply by showing their alleged "panic" at the realization that their victim is LGBTQ+.
https://harvardcrcl.org/lgbtq-panic-the-dark-ages-defense-strategy-you-didnt-know-existed/
Amanda Epstein explores whether prosecutors' ability to change the theory of their case at any time violates Due Process and fundamental norms of fairness for defendants.
https://harvardcrcl.org/searching-for-the-truth-not-convictions/
@HilaShamir @goetheuni @ERCDomEQUAL @mar_sabri I highly recommend the latest article by my wonderful @SUCollegeofLaw colleague Nina Kohn on American courts' acceptance of contracting btwn elderly ppl and their family #caregivers: "For Love and Affection" in @HarvardCRCL. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3393813. The conference sounds amazing!