Fall 2009 Student Work

This course is designed to be an overview of the issues faced by public interest lawyers. Those issues include, as you would imagine in a law course, substantive law questions. They also include social and political questions and questions about the role of the lawyer in social change and policy development. Ethical issues also arise in this practice area.

To help explore as many of these issues as possible and to engage all of the class in the development of the key material that we will read to learn about these issues, each student in the course, as part of a small team, will help prepare the assigned materials for one week of the course. Here is how this will work:

The course will begin with a deep look at a famous Chicago case, Gautreaux v. CHA, through the eyes of the lead lawyer in the case, Alexander Polikoff. Mr. Polikoff’s first person account of this 40 year public interest case, Waiting for Gautreaux, is a rich source for exploring the law, legal tactics, the social and political issues and the role of the lawyer in a landmark public interest case.

For each of the remaining 9 weeks of the course we will study one important public interest case, usually decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. The list of these cases is set out below.

While we cannot expect to gather the richness that Waiting for Gautreaux offers, the student teams will prepare Case Studies for each of the ten assigned cases. The Case Studies should include a paper and, in addition it can include bibliographies and selected readings as well as graphics and power points and videos that help the class understand:

· the nature of the controversy from which the case arose,

· the issues faced by the litigants and lawyers,

· the impact of the case decision on the litigants and the lawyers and

· finally, the impact the case has had on the public since its decision.

The Case Study will be assigned reading for the entire class for the week during which we study the covered case.

In addition to the normal Lexis and Google avenues for research, I encourage you to contact lawyers and litigants and people in the affected institutions. Interview them by phone or email or visit them if they are local. Include accounts of your interviews in the Case Study.

 

Case Study Student Assignments -

Fall 2009

Case Study 1: (9/22, 9/24)
Katzenbach v. South Carolina
Voting Rights, race discrimination
(Warren Linam-Church, Christopher Bailey-Woon, Daniel Berliant, Sondra Furcajg)

Case Study 2: (9/29, 10/1)
Town of Castle Rock, Colorado v. Gonzales
Due process, child abuse, law enforcement liability
(Candice Porter, Nathan Belding, Rachel Schaller)

Case Study 3: (10/6, 10/8)
Dupuy V. Samuels
Child welfare, neglect, due process
(Heather Rosenberg, Judy Chan, Julie Levinson)

Case Study 4: (10/13, 10/15)
Johnson v. Santa Clara
Title VII,sex discrimination and affirmative action
(Brent Movitz, Kaitin Powell, Genevieve Mackay)

Case Study 5: (10/20, 10/27)
Olmstead v. L.C.
ADA, mental health, community based treatment
(Virginia Graves, Christopher Jensen, Charles Alva)

Case Study 6: (10/29, 11/3)
Cruz v. US
Braceros compensation, wwII, immigration
(Kiki Mosley, Mario Carlasare, Talon Nouri)

Case Study 7: (11/5, 11/10)
Engel v. Vitale
School prayer, establishment clause
(Thaddeus Goodchild, Jacqueline Brody, Michael Elliott)

Case Study 8: (11/12, 11/17)
Eichman v. US
Flag burning, 1st amendment
(Tim Steinhelfer, Emily Stokes, Seth Wainer)