News and Events

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The Center is currently accepting applications for new affiliates. Click here to learn more about the benefits of affiliating with the Center, and how to apply. The application deadline is Wednesday, March 24.

Street Law Seeks Co-Chair and Youth Coordinator

The Center's Racial Justice Project is looking to hire current New York Law School students to work with the Street Law Project in the positions of Co-Chair and Youth Coordinator. Students will be paid to work between five and fifteen hours per week. The application deadline is March 22, 2010. For more information, click here.

Maryland Officials Call for Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages

Maryland’s Attorney General, Douglas F. Gansler, issued a formal Opinion on the morning of February 23, 2010, opining that there was no impediment under Maryland law to the state recognizing same-sex marriages that were contracted lawfully in other jurisdictions, and predicting that the Maryland courts would likely conclude that such marriages should be recognized. At the same time, Gansler said, the governor’s authority to command such recognition through an executive order would be limited to those forms of marriage recognition that were specifically within the purview of the executive branch. Click here to read more about this and other issues in the March publication of Lesbian/Gay Law Notes.

A new issue of Lesbian/Gay Law Notes is published each month. You can sign up to receive email notification of new issues (click here and then scroll to the bottom of the page) or you can access the archive by clicking the "Publications" tab on the left side bar.

Safe Passage Newsletter Now Available

The Safe Passage Project has published its Winter 2010 newsletter. To read about past achievements and future events, click here.

Adoption Conference Registration Now Available

Registration for the adoption conference is now available online. To register, click here. For more information on the conference, including speaker schedule and topics, click here.

Racial Justice Project Joins Amicus Brief in North Carolina Case

In December of 2009, the Racial Justice Project was one of more than thirty organizations and individuals to sign onto an amicus curiae brief in support of appellant in the Supreme Court of North Carolina case King v. Beaufort Co. Bd. of Educ. The King suit challenged North Carolina’s widespread use of exclusionary discipline measures in schools, such as long-term out-of-school suspensions, which unnecessarily marginalize and criminalize many students.

To learn more about this or other amicus projects, click here. To read about the Racial Justice Project generally, visit: www.nyls.edu/rjp

Center Affiliate Receives Service Award

Amy Bower, a current 3L in the Center, has been awarded the 2010 Commitment to Justice Award as outstanding in-house volunteer by inMotion. Amy will receive her award at a ceremony at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center on February 9.

Managing Your Law School Debt Burden

One of the biggest concerns law students have is debt burden. This is especially true for students interested in a career practicing social justice law. The federal government's new Income-Based Repayment (IBR) program may help you lessen this burden. The program is available to certain individuals with a high debt-to-earnings ratio who work in public interest or government jobs. Although debt repayment may still be several years off for many of you, it is important to think about this issue while you are still in school, as only certain types of loans are eligible for the program.

To learn more about the program, visit the following independent, non-profit website: www.IBRinfo.org. In addition to detailed information on the IBR program itself, the site includes links to past and upcoming webinars provided by Equal Justice Works that help explain the IBR program, how to determine your eligibility, and how to benefit from the program.

VIDEO: New York County District Attorney Candidates’ Civil Rights Forum

This fall, New York County residents elect a new District Attorney for the first time in nearly 35 years. In anticipation of this historic election, the Justice Action Center and the New York Civil Liberties Union cosponsored on September 2 a forum to discuss the candidate’s positions on fundamental and sometimes controversial civil rights and liberties issues. Pulitzer Prize-winning former Newsday columnist Les Payne moderated the discussion. Richard Aborn, candidate for District Attorney, was present and answered questions from the audience.

To watch the video, click here.

Click here for more event information from the New York Civil Liberties Union's website.

Center Director Publishes Chapter in Community Economic Development Guide

The ABA’s Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law has just published Building Healthy Communities: A Guide to Community Economic Development for Advocates, Lawyers, and Policymakers. The book, edited by Roger A. Clay, Jr. and Susan R. Jones, contains 28 chapters on topics including accessing government financial resources, responding to community interests, building human capital, creating individual and community assets, obtaining appropriate financial services, and embracing environmental opportunities and challenges. The book includes a chapter on the Community Reinvestment Act by Center Director Richard Marsico. For more information on the ABA Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law or to purchase a copy of the book, visit the ABA website.

VIDEO: NYC Public Advocate Candidates’ Civil Rights Debate

On July 28, 2009, the Justice Action Center co-hosted New York Civil Liberties Union’s NYC Public Advocate Candidates’ Civil Rights Debate. Award-winning Daily News columnist Juan González moderated this important debate between leading public advocate candidates: Bill de Blasio, Eric Gioia, Mark Green, Norman Siegel, and Alex Zablocki.

Click here to watch the debate.

International Mental Disability Law Reform Project Director Joins Amici Brief to Inter-American Court of Human Rights

On behalf of the International Mental Disability Law Reform Project of the Justice Action Center, Project Director Michael Perlin has signed onto a July 2009 amici brief in Algodonero v. Mexico, in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the question of the application of the American Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women (Convention Belem do Para) to a case involving the disappearance and murder of three young women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico several years ago. Lead counsel for amici are a California human rights firm and the Human Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.

To learn more about the International Mental Disability Law Reform Project, click here. To view a PDF of the amici brief, please click here.

Community Reinvestment Act Symposium Law Review Issue Now Available

The New York Law School Law Review’s symposium issue “The Community Reinvestment Act: Still Relevant at 30?” is now available. The Law Review issue collects the scholarly contributions written in conjunction with the October 12, 2008, live event. This issue examines the efficacy of the Community Reinvestment Act in helping to promote economic justice. Articles take a look back at the history of the CRA and its impact on new problems in predatory lending, with a special emphasis on the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. Click here to view a list of articles or to download individual papers. To visit the CRA Symposium page, go to www.nyls.edu/CRAat30.

School-to-Prison-Pipeline Conference Video Now Available

Video from our Challenging the School-to-Prison Pipeline Symposium is now available. The School-to-Prison Pipeline refers to systemic policies and practices that push our nation's schoolchildren, especially at-risk children, out of classrooms and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. It reflects a prioritization of incarceration over education, particularly for children of color. To read more about the conference or to view the videos, please click here. 

Adoption Conference Video Now Available

Video from our Sixth Annual Adoption Policy Conference: International Adoption, the United States and the Reality of the Hague System is also available. This conference addressed all aspects of international adoption to and from the United States, one year after the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption became effective in the United States. Click here for more information or to view the videos. 

JAC Professor Elected to the ACLU Board of Directors

Professor Deborah Archer was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union. Professor Archer is joining a long line of distinguished members who have served on the ACLU’s governing Board, including Felix Frankfurter, Thurgood Marshall, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Congratulations Professor Archer.

Professor Archer has also published her article, Failing Students or Failing Schools?: Holding States Accountable for the High School Dropout Crisis, 12 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 1253 (2008). To view an electronic copy of the article, click here.

Exploring the Subprime Mortgage Collapse

Faculty and students working with the Center’s Economic Justice Project have undertaken a series of reports exploring the rise and fall of the subprime mortgage market. To learn more, click on each report:

• The Subprime Mortgage Market Collapse: Causes and Solutions
• Subprime Home Mortgage Lending in New York City and Westchester County, 2005–2006
• The Higher Cost of Being African American or Latino: Subprime Home Mortgage Lending in New York City, 2004–2005

Global Human Rights Bulletin
For neutral and global coverage of human rights, check out the Global Human Rights Bulletin, a monthly publication created by the NYLS student division of Lawyers Without Borders.