Legal Methods II: Social Justice Advocacy - January 2019

Legal Methods II: Social Justice Advocacy

L6130 Section 6: January 2019

Course Description

Litigation and legal advocacy play a critical role in movements for social justice. Across a range of cutting edge issues, legal advocates work closely with movement leaders to mobilize litigation as one of the tactics deployed to combat structural racism, sexism, homophobia, economic inequality, abusive state power, and other forms of oppression.

This intensive course will examine the tactics and strategies deployed by social movement lawyers.  Much of legal education focuses on the mastery of doctrine, procedural rules, and the legal process abstracted from the sociopolitical contexts within which legal advocacy takes place.  Success is largely measured in terms of positive rulings from a judge or jury.  Social movement lawyering, by contrast, provides an excellent example of how lawyers use litigation as part of an overall advocacy strategy, deploying it as a tool in a larger toolkit that can include communications/media strategies, grassroots mobilization, Freedom of Information Act disclosures, public education, and other tools.

Key questions that will be addressed in this course:

  • When should lawyers lead the advocacy strategy and when should they take direction from movement partners?
     
  • When is the goal of the advocacy strategy about the enforcement of rights rather than the advancement of a larger notion of justice?
     
  • How can legal strategies attack not just the symptoms of social injustice but the structure that maintains it?
     
  • When might losing a case in court be a kind of “success without victory”?
     
  • When might a step-by-step strategy (i.e. NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s desegregation and Lambda Legal’s marriage equality strategies) be the best approach and when might a more radical approach be called for (including questioning the legitimacy of the legal system itself)?
     
  • Under what circumstances might a legal claim be more likely to succeed if the litigation is not framed in terms that explicitly name the kind of injustice being addressed (i.e. using the administrative procedure act or the vagueness doctrine, rather than alleging race/sex/sexual orientation-based discrimination)?

This course will be comprised of a combination of classroom lectures, outside speakers, practicums, and group work.  Students will be expected to attend all classroom sessions and participate actively in the work of small groups.  Each group will prepare and file a freedom of information act/law request on an issue that supports a social justice movement (topics will be provided) and will prepare a memorandum on how the FOIA/FOIL request figures in a larger social justice advocacy strategy.  Students are expected to spend a minimum of two and ½ hours each day on the assigned readings preparing for class.

  • Students will be evaluated (pass/fail) based on their class participation and group projects.
     
  • No laptops are permitted in this class.

Readings

For copies of any of the readings for this class, contact Liz Boylan, at [email protected], or (212) 854-0167.

Syllabus

Monday, January 14th

Readings:

  • Thomas Hilbink, The Profession, The Grassroots and the Elite: Cause Lawyering for Civil Rights and Freedom in the Direct Action Era, in Cause Lawyers and Social Movements (Sarat and Scheingold eds., 2006)
     
  • Michael Grinthal, Power With: Practice Models for Social Justice Lawyering, 15 U. Pa. J. L. & Soc. Change 25 (2011)
     
  • Paul Harris, Black Rage Confronts the Law (1997), To Use or Not Use the Black Rage Defense (Chapter 7)

9:30 – 12:00

  • Introduction to the course and to Social Movement Lawyering Methods

1:00 – 3:00

  • Freedom of Information Act Training – Ian Head, Center for Constitutional Rights

3:30 – 5:00

  • Work in small groups framing/planning FOIA-based project

Tuesday, January 15th

Readings:

  • Jules Lobel, Success without Victory: Lost Legal Battles and the Long Road to Justice in America (2003), Introduction
     
  • Bill Quigley, 20 Tools for Movement Lawyering
     
  • Center for Constitutional Rights, Creative Legal Strategies
     
  • Center for Constitutional Rights, How We Define Victory
     
  • FOIA Request on NSEERS Program
     
  • FOIA Request on Muslim Ban Waiver
     
  • Article 78 proceeding against NYPD Over Failure to Disclose Information on Gang Policing Policies

9:30 - 11:00 

  • Class lecture/discussion on social justice lawyering

11:00 – 1:00

  • Baher Azmy, Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights

1:00 – 2:00   

  • Lunch

2:00 – 5:00   

  • Group work on FOIA Request

Wednesday, January 16th

Readings:

9:30 - 11:00 

  • Class lecture/discussion on social justice lawyering

11:15 – 1:15

  • Jill Harris, Policy and Strategy Counsel, Brooklyn DA’s Office

1:15 – 2:00   

  • Lunch

2:00 – 5:00   

  • Group work on FOIA Request


Thursday, January 17th

Readings:

  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail
     
  • Brief Of And By Professors Of Religious Liberty As Amici Curiae In Support Of Neither Party On Defendants’ Motion To Dismiss Under The Religious Liberty Restoration Act, U.S. v. Hoffman, U.S. D.Ct.,
    District of Arizona
     
  • Preparing for an ICE Raid
     
  • Know Your Rights
     
  • Ragbir v. Sessions

9:30 - 11:00 

  • Class lecture/discussion on models of social justice lawyering

11:15 – 1:15

  • Sara Gozalo from the New Sanctuary Coalition, New York.

1:15 – 2:00   

  • Lunch

2:00 – 5:00   

  • Group work on FOIA Request

Friday, January 18th

9:30 – 12:00

  • Presentations by each group on FOIA projects and strategy memos

1:00 – 4:00   

  • Presentations by each group on FOIA projects and strategy memos

FINAL WRITTEN PROJECTS MUST BE SUBMITTED TO PROFESSOR FRANKE BY EMAIL NO LATER THAN 9:00 PM ON JANUARY 18th