Amicus Blog
Justice for Breonna Taylor: The Abuse of Prosecutorial Discretion
On March 13th, 2020, Breonna Taylor, an EMT, aspiring nurse, and unarmed Black woman, was fatally shot in her home. Months after she was senselessly killed by police, Kentucky Attorney General, Daniel Cameron, recommended charges against just one of the three officers...
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This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Welcome to This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. This week, the courts heard the Trump Administration’s last-ditch efforts to challenge the ACA, DACA, and the election results; the coronavirus continues to impact the education and employment sectors; the...
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On Jones v. Mississippi: a Case for Abolishing Life without Parole for Juveniles
Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument for Jones v. Mississippi, in which the Court will consider whether a juvenile offender must be found incapable of rehabilitation to be sentenced to life without parole.
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Veterans Day 2020: The Troubling Racial Disparities that Still Exist in Military Justice
As the country once again celebrates American servicemembers, we would be remiss if we didn’t examine the ways in which the military justice system continues to fail minority members of the armed forces.
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SCOTUS Hears Oral Argument on Conflict between Religious Liberty and Anti-Discrimination Measures in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia
Last week, the Supreme Court returned to the question it dodged in Masterpiece Cakeshop: what happens when LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination measures conflict with an entity’s religious freedom claim?
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COVID-19 Brings School Funding Inequities and Litigation Front and Center
Last week, in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi outlined priorities for negotiating COVID-related stimulus and programmatic plans. On her short list: funding for public K-12 schools. In the 2008 Recession, schools were hit...
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The Long Road to Ending Pretextual Stops
In September, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reexamined its case law on pretextual traffic stops by police in Commonwealth v. Long.
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What is Voter Intimidation?
Happy Election Day from the Amicus team! Today, Americans are coming together to have their voices heard and be counted in our democracy. With so much concern regarding voter intimidation and misinformation, we want to review what your rights are as a voter, so you can spot potentially illegal activity and feel confident reporting it. Election Day should be a time to celebrate the exercise of our civil rights—not a time for fear.
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Oh Deer!: Vermont Supreme Court’s Fourth Amendment Decision Generates Criticism from Supreme Court Justices
A recent Vermont Supreme Court decision imperils Fourth Amendment protections by further limiting the extent of curtilage. The decision drew criticism from Justices Gorsuch, Kagan, and Sotomayor in an interesting statement regarding the Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari.
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The Zoom-to-Prison Pipeline
As students expose their bedrooms, living rooms, and kitchens to their classes, teachers have an unprecedented view into a student’s family life. Many districts have doubled-down on the punishment and surveillance tactics that have characterized American education the last 30 years and have used the virtual window into students’ homes to justify punishments that make an already difficult time nearly impossible for students.
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This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
This week, as the election approaches there are significant concerns about voter intimidation and misinformation campaigns, the city of Eugene, Oregon settled a civil rights case brought by a journalist injured by police while covering protests, census experts pushed...
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Ending the 2020 Census Early is an Act of Violence Against Native Americans
Without ample time to accurately count the Native American population, the federal government is condemning Native American communities to at least another ten years of poverty and lower quality of life.
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The lives of Black victims do not matter nearly as much as those of white ones when it comes to the death penalty, a new study finds.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/us/racial-gap-death-penalty.html?referringSource=articleShare
Applications are open for article submissions for CR-CL 56.2. Please submit any articles that broadly touch on civil rights and civil liberties for publication. Details can be found here: https://harvardcrcl.org/submit/
Check out our newest blog post by Christina Coleburn about confronting racism! https://harvardcrcl.org/the-ostrich-rears-its-head-americas-2020-racial-reckoning-is-a-victory-and-opportunity/
Check out the second article in our series about racism and police brutality! Olivia Murray discusses prison abolition: https://harvardcrcl.org/why-8-wont-work/
Check out "Why We Can't Wait"—a powerful piece by Mo Light and the first in our new online series about racism and police brutality: https://harvardcrcl.org/why-we-cant-wait/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-we-cant-wait
As a journal, we stand with the student protestors HLS is attempting to discipline for exercising their free speech rights regarding prison divestment. Please sign the petition here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1TGkQyJlUPuvl9wqv5MAis8c7iec9A5JFzY92tj0Z_ns/viewform?edit_requested=true
We have 3 terrific pieces up on how progressives must reclaim the meaning of our Constitution.
Our contributors reflect back on progressives' priorities at the beginning of the Obama Administration and look forward to fights in 2021 and beyond.
https://harvardlpr.com/2020/04/02/online-symposium-the-future-of-progressive-constitutionalism/