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Anarchist Lawyering
Workshop Leader: Katya Komisaruk
Moderator: Simon Moshenberg
Katya Komisaruk, founder of the Just Cause Legal Collective, will discuss the meaning and tradition of anarchist lawyering, and her own work within that tradition.
Animals, Factory Farming, and the Law
Panelists: Gene Baur, Andi Bernat, Paul Shapiro
Moderator: Gregory Oschwald
In the past twenty-five years, our treatment towards animals has become an issue of grave moral concern for many people throughout the world. In the United States alone, 10 billion animals are slaughtered for food each year. Although the method of slaughter itself raises some concern, it is the treatment of the animals throughout their lives that is most shocking. For instance, egg-laying hens are crammed six to eight in a barren wire "battery" cage for their entire lives, each bird getting considerably less space than a sheet of paper. The birds are unable to ever dust bathe, stretch their wings, or even see the sun. A typical egg "farm" has over a million birds kept in such conditions, some farms having tens of millions of birds. The European Union is phasing in a ban on such cages and has banned many other such egregious practices. Although the U.S. lags behind, there has been considerable effort in the past several years to pass similar legislation. This effort has culminated in a ban on gestation crates for pigs in Florida, a ban on gestation crates and veal crates in Arizona, a ban on the sale of foie gras in California and Chicago, and several similar laws. The panel will discuss the legal resources for the protection of farmed animals, the problems with current anti-cruelty statutes, and the future direction of farmed animal protection in the United States.
Can Government Employees Still Speak Freely?
Panelists: Tom Devine, Mick Harrison, Hugh Kaufman
Moderator: Geri Greenspan
In light of recent Supreme Court decisions and the revelation of certain government policies, government employees now face a greater risk of retaliation for their speech. Government employees who report government fraud, wrongdoing, and corruption play a critical role in our democracy by increasing government accountability. For several decades, whistleblowers have been protected by federal and state statutes, and by the First Amendment. However, these protections are under attack on many fronts, as efforts to strengthen the executive branch and to maintain government secrecy increase. This panel will discuss the changing legal climate of whistleblower protection, the challenges that government employees face after blowing the whistle, and ways that attorneys and activists can work towards greater accountability in government through the encouragement and protection of whistleblowers.
Courts as Forums for Protest
Workshop Leader: Jules Lobel
When is it important for radical lawyers to take cases which they know will be extremely difficult to win, but which they believe raise important legal and political issues? For example, abolitionist lawyers and early women's movement lawyers all litigated cases that were difficult if not politically impossible to win. This workshop will explore the reasons to litigate those cases, how should they be litigated, the relationship of those cases to the political movements they grow out of, and the ethical and political problems these kind of cases raise.
The typical role of a lawsuit is to win either damages or injunctive relief for a client. However, throughout American history, progressive movements have sought to use lawsuits for another reason: to use the judicial forum to publicize important political and legal issues. From this perspective the success of a lawsuit must be measured by its effects on the political movement or organizations that help bring it. This workshop will ask what the legitimacy, viability, advantages and problems of viewing a lawsuit this way are.
Defending the Indefensible
Panelists: Steve Bogira, David Feige, Kate Rubin
Moderator: Christopher Lasch
When we think of defending the indefensible, we think first of the defense attorney's commitment to advocating for the worst of the worst, not just those accused of the most heinous crimes, but, inevitably, those who have actually committed them. Through this panel, we explore defending the indefensible from a different perspective, a vantage point from which individuals and communities are implicated in a system that acts in an indefensible manner. How can those who provide counsel reform a system in which they necessarily take part? The three panelists - a public defender, a crime journalist, and a social worker - each offer a different perspective on the manner in which urban criminal courts and sanctions intersect with and affect people's lives, and the ways in which lawyers and reformers working in these courts can both mitigate and transform these effects.
Eco-Sabotage and the War on Terror
Panelists: Lauren Regan, Will Potter
Moderator: William Burch
In 2006, the government convicted animal rights activists known as the SHAC 7 on "animal enterprise terrorism" charges and indicted 11 other ecological activists for alleged acts of property damage involving no harm to life. Labeling the defendants "ecoterrorists," the government has sought terrorism enhancements and destructive device charges that carry with them a mandatory minimum of 30 years and the possibility of life. This exercise of what the National Lawyers Guild calls "selective prosecution" has been termed the Green Scare.
Led by an attorney for several defendants and a journalist who has covered the cases in depth, this panel will discuss the "green scare," 9/11's fallout for activists, the government's use of potentially unconstitutional techniques such as wiretapping to monitor activist groups, and the emergence of a new category of "domestic terrorists" that a recent ACLU suit claims now includes Greenpeace, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the ACLU itself. The panelists also will describe how lawyers, communities, and individuals can respond to these federal policies. For an example of a prisoner support site, see http://supportdaniel.org.
Human Rights in America and the Role of Lawyers Within Movements
Panelists: Martha Davis, Gerardo Reyes
Moderator: Amanda Shanor
Translator: Catherine Albisa
Following the end of the Cold War, the social justice community in the US has returned to developing strategies and organizing models for effectively using international human rights standards in US advocacy. Human rights offer a conceptual and practical framework for the social justice community to come together and build a movement to ensure freedom, security and dignity for all people. This panel will look at the history of the use of the human rights perspective by the US social justice community, explore the role of lawyers within movements, and learn from one of the new organizing models in economic and social rights that seeks to realize human rights at home: the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). The CIW is a migrant workers rights group that fights human trafficking and sweatshop labor in the US agriculture industry though campaigns against the fast-food industry. The CIW is currently leading a campaign against McDonald's.
Increasing Access to Medicines: Local to International Strategies
Panelists: Kate Evans, Amy Kapczynski, Robynn Sturm
Moderator: Michael Steffen
Each year, millions of people needlessly suffer from disease in impoverished countries because they lack access to existing medicines. As universities are key players in the development of treatments for HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, they can play a significant role in ensuring that drugs developed with their research reach those who need it most.
In thinking about the role that lawyers can play to bring about social change, we often think first of litigation. This panel aims to explore a diverse set of "legal" strategies employed - by law students, university technology transfer officers, legislators, and international non-governmental organizations - to change university licensing policies to increase global access to essential medicines.
Institutional Racism and the Suburban Landscape
Panelists: Diane Goins, Elaine Gross, Paul Sweeney
Moderator: Anne O'Hagen
Since they became a major part of the national landscape, suburbs have been segregated. Though there are no longer legal restrictions prohibiting integration, access to credit and current residents have impeded integration. This panel will explore the recent developments in attempting to desegregate one of the earliest suburbs -- Long Island. Organizations have utilized both education and litigation strategies to decrease segregation in several Long Island communities. This panel will explore the differing strategies for integrating communities and discuss their relative successes and failings.
Intelligent Design Meets the First Amendment:
A Report on the Landmark Case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
Workshop Leader: Stephen Harvey
Stephen Harvey of the Philadelphia, PA, office of Pepper Hamilton LLP will deliver a presentation and lead a discussion on the subject of "Intelligent Design" and the landmark case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005). Mr. Harvey was lead trial counsel in Kitzmiller, which concerned a Dover, PA, school board policy that changed the public high school science curriculum to require science teachers in biology class to read a statement denigrating evolution and promoting Intelligent Design as a scientific alternative to evolution. The plaintiffs, eleven parents of school children in the Dover school system, challenged the school board's policy as a violation of the Establishment Clause. On December 21, 2005, the district court ruled decisively in the plaintiff's favor and enjoined the school board policy. Mr. Harvey will discuss the case, the history of the controversy over the teaching of evolution, and the legal, religious, and scientific issues raised by the controversy.
International Disability Rights: Emerging Issues Abroad
Panelists: Nora Groce, Kathy Martinez, Eric Rosenthal
Moderator: Emily Teplin
While disability rights advocates in the United States have made considerable gains in the past several decades-arguably culminating in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990-many argue that the judiciary has limited the rights of people with disabilities over the past several years. But what of people with disabilities outside of America, particularly those in developing nations? Most countries do not offer any legal protection specifically for people with disabilities, and those that do are often plagued by a lack of legal enforcement mechanisms. Many people with disabilities outside of the United States face societal barriers (such as a dearth of accessible transportation and assistive technology such as wheelchairs) that hinder their integration and independence.
This panel will explore emerging issues in disability rights abroad. The United Nations is currently developing a Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities; this panel will discuss the effect the new convention may have on policies affecting people with disabilities internationally as well as their everyday existences. The panel will also discuss the greatest challenges facing people with disabilities in developing countries and how advocates can address them through both legal and non-legal means.
Making Markets Work:
Improving Access to Credit in Low-Income Communities
Panelists: Peter Hurst, Sarah Ludwig, H. Robert Tillman
Moderator: Robert Solomon
Concerted legal, advocacy, and organizing efforts contributed to the enactment of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) in 1977. CRA was designed to curb the practice of "redlining" through which low and moderate-income communities are excluded from the mortgage market and severely limited in their ability to build wealth. CRA has undoubtedly had significant positive effects, improving the regulation of mortgage lenders and channeling more than $1.5 trillion into needy neighborhoods. However, abuses persist. Most recently, through practices referred to as "reverse redlining", costly loans carrying unconscionable loan terms have flooded low-income, predominately minority communities, leading victims to massive debt accumulation and/or the complete loss of homes.
This panel will examine the role of "rebellious" lawyers in reversing abusive mortgage lending practices and expanding access to credit in low-income, predominately minority communities. Panelists will discuss the role of lawyers in advancing policy research and advocacy, legislative efforts, litigation, grassroots organizing, and business strategies.
Mobilizing for School Integration
Panelists: Anurima Bhargava, Dennis Parker
Moderator: Robert Solomon
Fifty-three years after Brown v. Board of Education, our country is at a crossroads in K-12 education. Schools are more segregated today than they were in the 1970s. Many have resegregated after being released from court-mandated desegregation plans. School districts have had conflicting responses to increased segregation. Some have adopted voluntary integration plans in an effort to obtain the benefits of a diverse student body, while others have redesigned school boundaries to mirror residential patterns, creating separate schools for whites, blacks, and Latinos. Both of these strategies are currently being challenged as violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This term, the Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of the Seattle and Louisville voluntary integration plans, and a district court is reviewing the redrawn school boundaries in Omaha. Thus, the fate of school integration is in a state of uncertainty.
In light of these challenges, this panel looks to develop strategies to promote school integration. In particular, panelists will be asked to discuss ways that advocates should respond to the situations in Omaha, Seattle, and Louisville.
On the Fence:
The Intersection of Labor Trafficking and Immigration Control Policies in the U.S.
Panelists: Carlos Castresana, Michael Wishnie, Joy Zarembka
Moderators: Erin Evers and Sam Jacobs
This panel seeks to address American border and immigration control policies, most notably President Bush's recent signing into law of the Secure Fence Act, and policies addressing workers' rights and labor trafficking. The panel will discuss various issues, from the implications of legal employment through limited visas allowed to diplomats in hiring domestic help, and proposed temporary visas for migrant farm workers, to the vulnerability of undocumented workers when they enter the country, with a view towards analyzing the contradiction between these policies and tightly controlled borders. Specifically, the panel will look at the tension between strict border controls - justifications for which include both national security and prevention of trafficking - and these measures. Finally, panelists will address the general propensity within the human rights community toward favoring porous borders, liberal immigration policies, and encouraging freedom of movement, and the ways in which these ideals might be reconciled with the prevention of human trafficking and the promotion of workers' rights.
The Path to Employment Protections for LGBT Individuals
Panelists: Suzanne Goldberg, Michelle Phillips, Edward Stein
Moderator: Issa Kohler-Hausmann
This panel will discuss various strategies for extending employment antidiscrimination protections to gays and lesbians. Panelists will address the benefits and drawbacks of conceptualizing anti-homosexual discrimination as a form of sex discrimination, and other theories as to how best to approach extending employment discrimination protection to LBGT individuals.
Puerto Rico's Status: Strategies for Change
Panelists: Eduardo Bhatia, José Julián Álvarez González, Christina Duffy Burnett
Moderator: José R. Coleman Tió
Puerto Rico is the oldest colony in the world. Today, 4 million Puerto Ricans (all of whom are U.S. citizens) live in a state of political limbo, where they lack real autonomy from the federal government yet are denied meaningful representation in its institutions. The colonial dilemma in Puerto Rico poses many difficult questions to which there are no easy answers. Can the political process resolve this colonial dilemma, or should the courts intervene? How much flexibility does the constitution allow in developing a permanent, non-colonial status for Puerto Rico? And what role should Congress play in facilitating Puerto Rican self-determination? Don't expect to walk away with concrete answers, but do expect some very lively discussion on these controversial issues.
Where Is the Popular Movement Against Torture?
Panelists: Jumana Musa, Dianna Ortiz, Deborah Pearlstein
Moderator: Harold Hongju Koh
In the years since September 11th, the widely held belief that there is a universal right to be free from torture has given way to a view that torture is a potentially legitimate tool in the "war on terror." The movement against torture has often been fragmented: lawyers, doctors, survivor-advocates, religious communities, grassroots organizers, regional experts, and others frequently work separately, and a mass movement has yet to truly emerge. This panel will engage leaders of diverse aspects of the movement that does exist and give them a forum for reaching law students interested in participating in the fight against torture.
This panel will include 3 speakers representing distinct approaches to advocacy and change-making from within the anti-torture movement. The objectives of the panel are to (1) discuss various mini-movements or sub-movements of the anti-torture movement and their connections to other movements (anti-war, etc); (2) exchange general approaches and strategies of organizing of the grassroots, legal community and torture survivor-advocates, as well as looking at the results of each; (3) brainstorm ways to bring together sub-movements in a more united anti-torture movement; and (4) explore ways to incorporate law and other students into this movement more fully.
Yale Sustainable Food Project
Workshop Leader: Joshua Viertel
This workshop will discuss the importance of sustainable agriculture, why we should approach food as a political concern, and what changes can be made in government and school policy to support sustainable agriculture. Joshua Viertel will provide insight into how students convinced Yale University to support an agricultural program, and how this might be replicated at other schools. Students will get a tour of the Yale Farm, and maybe even pizza from the farm's wood-fired oven!