We Care About

Why Care? 

The right to a free and equitable education for all children (citizens and immigrants) is guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Legal issues around public education cross into areas such as race, religion, freedom of speech, privacy, disability rights, sexual discrimination, sexual identity and more. Educational equity, discrimination, and a lack of equal opportunity in schools may be the most serious issues facing our educational system.

Key Points

The Constitution requires that all children have access to educational opportunity no matter their race, ethnicity, religion, sex, wealth, or citizenship status. Students with disabilities must be given an education that is appropriate for their needs. Non-English speakers have a right to bilingual education, English language instruction, or both. Schools should not be able to violate a student’s rights because of their sexual orientation. What is taught in public schools is often in dispute, including prayer at public school events, evolution vs. creationism, and historical content in textbooks. Government funding has been diverted to private, religious schools through tax credits or a remittance of the property taxes used to fund public schools.

Why Courts Matter?

Courts interpret laws on discrimination, student rights, educational equity, and separation of religion and state. Several judicial nominees who now sit on federal courts would not say that Brown v Board of Education was rightly decided, raising questions about it as precedent for educational equity. The number of cases related to our education system is growing, and decisions made by the judiciary will have lasting effects on our children, our educational system, and our democracy.

Why Care?

The right to vote is one of the most crucial rights held by Americans. Voter fraud is exceedingly rare. Laws that claim to prevent voter fraud, like those requiring photo ID to vote, create more problems than they solve. While poll taxes and literacy tests may be relics of the past, new laws restricting the right to vote similarly supress the votes of people of color and the poor.

Key Points:

The right to vote has been contested since the founding of our country, with Black men gaining the right to vote in 1870 and women in 1920. While the right to vote may have existed on paper, reality has been filled with property requirements, poll taxes, violence, and countless other voter supression tactics.

Why Courts Matter?

By striking down part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Supreme Court has allowed states across the country to enact unnecessarily strict voter ID laws, slash early voting periods, purge voter rolls, close polling places, and eliminate same-day voter registration. Within three years of this decision, 14 states enacted new restrictions on voting. The courts are one of the few avenues available to those who are disenfranchised by state laws that make it more difficult to vote.

Why Care?

Climate Change impacts everyone and everything and does not discriminate. We can stop it. The main source of carbon dioxide emission is burning fossil fuels. Our supply of food, clean water, and safe air is threatened. We can expect more unusual weather events (rain, floods, hurricanes, droughts, volcano eruptions, etc.) due to climate change.

Key Points:

Climate Change is a long-term shift in weather patterns, including precipitation, temperatures, cloud cover, and more. According to scientific experts, current Climate Change is caused by human activities that have resulted in an increased concentration of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, and nitrous oxide.

Why Courts Matter?

Since 1990, more than 1,023 legal actions concerning climate change have been brought in the United States. In most cases, the courts have upheld climate regulations. The courts may be the most civil, dispassionate, rule-bound places to examine the facts around climate change. Courts tend to hold a higher standard of how they use science and evidence than a legislature. Court cases bring a sense of urgency to the topic.

Why Care?

Other than Native Americans, we are a nation of immigrants. Having a fair and functioning immigration system ensures that our nation continues to provide a refuge for those seeking to escape political, ethnic, or religious oppression, as well as starvation and crushing poverty. A steady stream of immigrants is needed to keep our population and economy strong and growing.

Key Points:

The US has traditionally provided a safe haven for those fleeing physical danger, political oppression, ethnic and religious discrimination, starvation, and crushing poverty. This has built a strong and diverse nation with a strong and diverse economy. Enforcing unfair and unduly restrictive immigration policies betrays our nation’s ideals and will reduce our ability to remain a competitive and growing economic and military power.

Why Courts Matter?

Courts are one of the very few avenues to protect the rights of immigrants against unfair and inhumane interpretations of immigration laws, and to protect their basic human rights. Over the course of our history, fair judges have historically protected immigrants from abuses by the Executive branch; while unfair judges have shielded inhumane and prejudiced actions by Congress and the Executive. The decisions in question frequently involve questions of life and death for the affected immigrants.

Why Care?

The LGBTQ community is particularly vulnerable to discrimination. Challenges to LGBTQ rights to marry, work, or adopt are often brought under the guise of religious freedom. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act can be abused to discriminate in employment and public services against the LGBTQ community and others by invoking a subjective set of values to justify discrimination.

Key Points:

LGBTQ: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning. Protecting the LGBTQ community from discrimination ensures all Americans have equal protection under law. LGBTQ rights are under attack in Courts as cases decide if LGBTQ individuals will be free from prejudice with access to services according to one’s gender identity.

Why Courts Matter?

It typically falls to the federal courts to interpret the rights of the LGBTQ community. There is a disturbing trend in nominating judges who have shown open hostility toward the LGBTQ community to lifetime judicial appointments. Steven Menashi, confirmed to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, said that LGBTQ identities are “outside and above nature.” Jeff Mateer’s nomination was withdrawn over criticism that he called transgender children part of “Satan’s plan.”

Why Care?

Key Points:

Why Courts Matter?

Why Care?

Key Points:

Why Courts Matter