The greatest impact of the novel coronavirus on most of our lives has not been physiological. Rather, the impact has come from state governments’ responses to the virus. In much of the country, stay-at-home measures have shut down our lives—including our ability to continue with our employment, study, religious practice, socializing, and access to arts and entertainment. Commentary on the legality of these measures has been limited at the time of writing, but some commenters have suggested that courts might find them vulnerable on the grounds that they cannot survive heightened judicial scrutiny.
Unequal Access: How Debt Exacerbates Inequality in Education Financing
When school funding flows from property taxes, it follows that geographic wealth disparities will lead to unequal districts. In the 1970s, courts began wading into the legally murky water of school funding to correct such gaps, but they did so without a comprehensive understanding of what creates them in the first place. Courts focused on property taxes and spending per pupil to measure inequality, instead of debt and the ability to access financial markets. Given this incomplete understanding of inequality, most courts shirk the opportunity to ensure that students have equal access to education, deferring school funding questions to state legislatures. […]
Finally, a Use for the U.S. News Law School Rankings
As it turns out, whether a college football team is good at scoring touchdowns is unrelated to how good their law school is […]
Carrying on Korematsu: Reflections on My Father’s Legacy
Five months before he passed away, my father, Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu, gave me a charge: continue his mission to educate the public and remind people of the dangers of history. At that time, I was running my commercial interior design firm. I was far from a public speaker, educator, and civil rights advocate. However, for […]
Widely Welcomed and Supported by the Public: A Report on the Title IX-Related Comments in the U.S. Department of Education’s Executive Order 13777 Comment Call
Executive Summary This report reviews research that coded the content of the 16,376 comments filed with the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in response to ED’s call for public comments on Executive Order 13777 (establishing a federal policy to “alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens”), which closed on September 22, 2017. This research focused on the 12,035 […]
Sitting in the Front of the Bus: Belonging at the East Bay Community Law Center
It was a weekday afternoon, and my last meeting of the day was a community forum in Oakland hosted by Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson to discuss African American achievement. The convening was at an Oakland high school that was not on a BART line […]
Developing Lawyers: The East Bay Community Law Center’s Impact on Law Students’ Professional Identity Formation
I was recently at a conference of lawyers where we were asked to reflect on how we developed our professional identity. Not easily defined, professional identity is “a way of being” that encompasses the skills, values, roles, and behavior patterns of the profession […]
Energy, Skill, and Outrage: How the Clinical Model Can Support Law Students and Clients as Drivers of Social Change
In “Rebellious Lawyering: One Chicano’s Vision of Progressive Law Practice,” Gerald P. López advocates for an inclusive model of progressive lawyering that acknowledges and employs the varying expertise of all the participants in the struggle for social change. In a similar spirit, the East Bay Community Law Center […]
Holistic Healing: From Medical-Legal Partnerships to Future Collaboration with Community-Based Organizations
Founded in 1989 as one of the pioneer clinics at the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), the Health & Welfare Practice provides holistic legal services through a medical-legal partnership model to improve the health and well-being of vulnerable individuals. Our experience over the last three decades […]
Community Lawyering: Direct Legal Services Centered Around Organizing
In June 2017, Susan Burton, founder of the successful prisoner reentry program A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL), spoke to students and staff at the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC). Ms. Burton’s story is profound […]