Welcome 1Ls! We are the official, student-run journal of the American Constitution Society. We publish articles from progressive legal scholars and policy experts both in print (twice a year) and online (constantly updated). We can’t wait to meet you at the activities fair in September and answer any questions that you have.
The Supreme Court and Standing
By Tom Watts
Today, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal on California’s Proposition 8 in Hollingsworth v. Perry, allowing the District Court’s decision overturning Prop 8 to stand. This decision returned California to the list of states permitting same-sex marriage. With this decision, accompanied by the defeat of DOMA in United States v. Windsor, today was a great day in the fight for gay rights.
But as the just euphoria over a major civil rights victory at a court that has been quite hostile to civil rights — let us not forget the demise of a significant portion of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder just yesterday — begins to settle, we should consider just how the Court came to these salutary outcomes. I suggest this because I believe that Perry was wrongly decided.
HLPROnline Symposium, Keynote Address: Lessons from Gideon and The Struggle for Access to Justice, by Gene Nichol
1:50: Gene Nichol, setting a modest tone for his address: “If George Bush taught us anything, it’s the importance of diminished expectations.”
1:52: Nichol won’t be measuring things, “The bigger I get, the less interested I get in measuring things.” Crack at law students, who are bad at measuring things.
1:54: “These are chilly times,” Nichol’s home state of NC is debating whether to establish a state religion. “But the only state religion in North Carolina is college basketball.”
1:55: The South has more poverty, and fewer politicians who care about it, than other regions.
1:57: Gideon handed down almost exactly 50 years ago, by a Supreme Court willing to rethink major American traditions to intervene on the side of the powerless and marginalized, in contrast to the current trend of rethinking tradition to help the privileged.
Panel 3: The Future of Law and Policy
2:20 — Jacqui Bowman of Greater Boston Legal Services kicks off the final panel of the day with a picture of a day at GBLS.
2:24 — Bowman: GBLS makes difficult choices between serving people in dire circumstances, gives example of choosing to represent one battered woman seeking a divorce but not another because the latter’s husband respected the restraining order on him.
2:27 — Bowman: Legal Services has a “twin mission” of promoting access to justice and helping eradicate poverty, but sometimes we forget the second part of that mission.
2:29 — Bowman: A civil Gideon would prevent people from being subject to the vagaries of funding for legal service programs when their critical legal rights are threatened.
2:31 — Bowman: We need to continue to work with law students to ensure that they come out of law school understanding the commitment to access to justice.
HLPROnline Symposium, Panel II: “Today’s Pro Bono Efforts – What’s Working, What Isn’t” Live Blog
12:15- Panel 2 on Today’s Pro Bono Efforts. Panelists are Richard Zorza, Jeanne Charn, Scott Cummings, David Grossman, and Katherine Hudgins.
12:15 – Introductory remarks by Alex Smith. Importance of pro bono for access to justice forces us to evaluate how much good existing pro bono efforts are doing and how it can be improved. The second panel today will discuss these questions.
12:17 – Zorza Introduction: today’s discussion evidence of how much access to justice discussion has changed, shows move away from previous dead end discussions to real concrete discussions about how to improve access to justice.
HLPROnline Symposium, (Welcoming Remarks and Panel I) Live Blog
10:30 Welcoming Remarks by Dean Minow
10:33 Alex Smith- symposium coordinator thanking everyone who put work into today.
10:35- room is almost full, so great to see so many people showing support!
10:37- Smith says a great tragedy in access to justice is how few people are aware/talking about this crisis.
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