by Fran Swanson | Nov 10, 2020 | Amicus
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? The City of Philadelphia contracts with Catholic Social Services (CSS) for...
by Fran Swanson | Sep 22, 2020 | Amicus
By a 6-3 majority, the Supreme Court in Bostock v. Clayton County held that Title VII protects employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The decision consolidates three cases: two involving gay men who were fired by their...
by Fran Swanson | Sep 14, 2020 | Amicus, Weekly News Roundup
Welcome to This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. SCOTUS will consider access to medical abortions, while the 11th Circuit ok’d Florida’s pay-to-vote system for people convicted of felonies. Three studies shed light on a host of inequities facing Illinois...
by Fran Swanson | Apr 15, 2020 | Amicus
The COVID-19 pandemic presents a deadly risk to incarcerated people and others who have contact with the criminal justice system. Over 2 million people are incarcerated in jails and prisons in the United States, with another 4.5 million supervised on probation or...
by Fran Swanson | Apr 3, 2020 | Amicus
Last Monday, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Kahler v. Kansas and upheld Kansas’s significant narrowing of the insanity defense. Justice Kagan—joined by the five conservative justices—wrote for the majority, rejecting Kahler’s claim that Kansas had...