2000 blf summer grant proposals
please note: spelling and typographical errors due to document scanning
A New Beginning: Re-opening the Teen Mom's Shelter
Help pregnant, homeless teenagers get the emergency shelter they need. Recently, the
only San Francisco shelter for pregnant teenagers closed due to a loss of funds, leaving teens out
on the street, or with limited, insufficient options. My summer project is aimed at getting this
desperately needed shelter re-opened.
Currently, San Francisco's pregnant teens can stay in a family shelter, a youth shelter, or a shelter for
battered pregnant women and their children. These are bad options for pregnant teenagers, who are often assaulted
or harassed in adult or general youth shelters. Surrounded by poor diet, drugs, and alcohol, teens living in general
shelters have increased chances of birthing underweight babies with serious health problems.
General shelters simply do not address pregnant teenagers' particular needs. A shelter specifically for
pregnant teens is likely to get special medical funding, and counseling appropriate to the girls' ages and needs. The
teen mom's shelter will provide a strong support network to teens, and help prepare them to make choices about the
future.
This summer I will write a proposal to re-open the teen mom's shelter in San Francisco. I will investigate
the reasons for the shelter's closure and the cost of re-opening, as well as possible sources for funding. With the help
of the social workers and lawyers at Legal Services for Children, as well as the teen clients of the organization, I
will research the particular housing needs of indigent pregnant teenagers. I will also investigate exactly which needs
are currently being met in shelters, and which are desperately lacking. Finally, based on my research, I will write a
proposal to re-open the shelter, which will be presented to the mayor's office. My goal is to convince the mayor to
re-open the teen mom's shelter to serve the crucial health and counseling needs of SF's homeless pregnant teenagers,
and to give these teens the resources they need to succeed.
A New Role for the Civil Rights Act: Addressing The Disparate Impact of Pollution on
Low-Income Communities and Communities of Color
This project is unique because it brings together both social justice and environmental concerns. Pollution trading is a
policy that allows polluters to buy the right to emit excess amounts of pollution by buying reductions made at another
source. The entities seeking to buy pollution rights are most often located in low-income communities and communities
of color. The communities surrounding polluting sources are already overburdened by the disproportionate amount of
pollution in the air they breathe. They cannot afford to bear the additional health risks associated with increased pollution
levels in their communities. Children in communities of color have elevated incidence of asthma and related respiratory
illnesses. These same children have the poorest access to health care. Pollution trading lies at the core of concerns that
address the intersection between health, poverty and environmental degradation in urban areas.
This summer I will be working for Communities for a Better Environment, an environmental justice organization in San
Francisco, on litigation attacking pollution trading as discriminatory under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. I will be
challenging a project by televangelist Pat Robertson to restart a shut down oil refinery in a low-income Latino community
in Southern California. The reopening is dependent on the purchase of pollution credits from a company in Newport
Beach. This oil refinery would release chemicals that have localized toxic impacts. The health of this community can
only be protected if these chemicals are regulated at their source, and not in Newport Beach. Forcing environmental
compliance of this particular oil refinery will work as part of a larger campaign to challenge pollution trading on an over-
arching policy level because improvement of air quality, on the whole, does not justify poorer air quality for the poor and
people of color.
Advocacy or Abrogation: the Conflict of Justice for the Homeless
San Francisco has consistently been among the top five U.S. cities with the most oppressive laws and
policies toward poor and homeless citizens. (National Center on Homelessness and Poverty). City employees
confiscate the property of homeless citizens without due process of law. When shelter beds are full, the homeless are
confronted with criminal citations for sleeping where they can. Homeless citizens traditionally have the least access
to legal representation to protect them from the abrogation of their civil rights.
As a summer intern at the Coalition on Homelessness, Civil Rights Division, I will work to protect the civil
rights of homeless citizens. The Coalition is a unique organization because outreach is its essential fabric; the
experiences of homeless citizens inform every legal action or solution the Coalition employs. I will participate in
this extensive outreach, educating homeless and low-income people about their rights. This outreach will help me
understand the way the law is being applied to deprive the homeless population of those rights, as I provide legal
representation to homeless individuals.
My project includes research and policy development that will result in groundbreaking solutions to the legal
challenges of the homeless. I will work to help develop new legal strategies such as the necessity defense. This
defense would be used when homeless citizens are cited for sleeping in the park or in doorways when all the shelter
beds are full. The project will also include statistical research on city ordinances and codes effecting homeless
citizens- The research I do will inform the statewide civil rights organizing the Coalition on Homelessness is
spearheading. The homeless population needs the legal assistance I will help provide this summer, with the
Coalition on Homelessness, Civil Rights Division.
Asymmetric negotiations:
Aiding Tibet in its exercise of the internationally recognized right to self
determination
Prior to the illegal, aggressive entrance of the People's Republic of China (PRC) into Tibet in 1950, Tibet had been independent from
Chinese rule for at least 1300 years, and had been a fully sovereign nation. Today, the Chinese government not only violates the Tibetan
people's right to self-determination under Article 1(2) of the United Nations Charter, but systematically commits human rights abuses
including repression of religion, population transfer, environmental destruction, coerced sterilization and abortion, involuntary
disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrest and executions. These human rights abuses make Tibet's legitimate desire for self-governance all the
more urgent. Tibet has demonstrated its opposition to the current rule of the PRC though the existence of its legitimate government-in-exile,
as well as continued substantial popular opposition. Created at the request of representatives of the Tibetan people in 1989, International
Committee of Lawyers for Tibet (ICLT) is the only international organization wholly devoted to legal advocacy for Tibet.
A BLF grant would enable me to contribute to ICLT's Self-governance study, the expansion of which the Tibetan
government-in-exile has requested. The study already looks at the structure of thirty-five agreements around the world, in which a people had
attained self-governance. I plan to research and write about the actual implementation of self-sovereignty agreements in countries that have
successfully negotiated for self-governance against an opposing country, after years of conflict. The more legal precedent and practical
information that Tibet can synthesize for its own model of self-governance, the stronger its case at the negotiating table. I will also research
and assist in the writing of a manual called "Asymmetric negotiations: a guide for non-state actors in intrastate conflicts." This manual will
analyze the unequal bargaining between conflicting parties, and discuss the interest that the international community has in seeing these
conflicts resolved such that both sides' interests are satisfied.
Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment Support Project
For eight weeks of this summer, I will be working at the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment's ("CRPE") office in San
Francisco. For this specific project, I hope to utilize my two years of law school training in statutory interpretation and legal research,
and specifically the knowledge gained in my environmental law classes. The project will deal with two specific lawsuits. 7rbe first is
against Laidlaw Environmental Services under Business and Professions Code § 17200 for its alleged disposal of low-level nuclear
waste at the Buttonwillow hazardous waste facility without a permit from the state. The second suit seeks to force the San Joaquin
Valley Air Quality Management District to develop standards for emissions (including methane and ammonia) from dairies. The project
will also require responding to EIRs as they come in, meeting with regulatory agencies and Baykeeper to develop sampling guidelines
for pesticide monitoring, help develop a plan to convince environmental land trusts to set aside some trusts specifically for
environmental justice concerns, and various other tasks that might come up during the course of the summer.
The Delano project will last approximately two weeks and will provide assistance to CRPE's Earlimart Community Pesticide Education
and Participation Project. The impetus for CRPEs project comes from a pesticide overspray incident on November 13, 1999 when at
least 156 residents of Earlimart became ill as a result of exposure to Metam Sodium (a carcinogen), which was being applied through an
irrigation system to a nearby potato field. Since the incident, resident groups have tried unsuccessfully to pressure the Tulare County
Board of Supervisors to reconsider county guidelines that regulate pesticide use and appoint an Advisory Commission to re-evaluate
those guidelines. The aim of the project is to help educate the citizens of Earlimart's low income and minority communities about the
dangers posed by pesticide exposure, and to form an Advisory Committee, comprised of both Earlimart residents and health and
agriculture professionals, that will advise the residents about appropriate use of pesticides and the legal policies surrounding their use.
The resident’s Advisory Committee is intended to produce recommendations that will be accepted by the County Agricultural
Commissioner. The project will also assist in organizing resident’s efforts to make their concerns about pesticide use and Advisory
Committee recommendations known to the County Supervisors.
CLOSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: ENSURING ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY FOR
UNDERPRIVELEDGED CONEWUNITIES
As advances in telecommunications and the World Wide Web become increasingly important aspects of our
daily lives, those without access to this technology fall progressively further behind. The term "digital divide" is often
used to describe this gap between the haves and have-nots in our society. Traditional forms of communication are
increasingly converging into electronic formats, and the ability to live and work efficiently and competitively depends
upon access to those formats -just think about the ways in which the Internet has revolutionized the legal practice. This
summer, I will help eliminate the growing digital divide by ensuring that low-income and minority communities have
the access to technology to which they are entitled.
Through a sponsoring organization, I will be providing litigation support for suits brought under CA Public
Utilities Code § 854. This statute requires that a portion of profits derived from any telecommunications merger be
invested in the communities that these companies service. A suit brought under § 854 regarding the recent merger
between GTE and Bell Atlantic, for example, produced a fund in excess of $50 million to be used in advancing
communications technology for some of California's poorest locals. I will be researching and writing a set of
guidelines for use by low-income communities throughout the country that will enable them to conduct similar suits
and establish technology funds of their own. I will also be helping to defend such actions against expected third party
claims that targeting communities based on race, ethnicity, language and income violates Equal Protection laws. In
addition, I will assist on suits combating telecommunications redlining committed by companies all over California.
Redlining takes place when utilities do not provide adequate telecommunications services to certain communities or
charge relatively higher prices for such services. In the past, rural, poor and minority communities have been targeted.
I will be conducting factual investigations and taking declarations to begin a complaint proceeding against any
company taking part in this kind of discriminatory practice. Two discrete communities that have been targeted are
Koreatown in Los Angeles and Latino communities in the Bay Area. Monetary relief from these suits would go to
these communities and others across the state as well.
Thank you for taking the time to read my proposal. With your help, I will be able to spend this summer
working to close the digital divide.
Counting the Vote: Challenging Discriminatory Dilution Effects on Latinos in At-Large
Elections Systems through Civil Rights Litigation
Despite the recent attention in state and national elections on the political power of Latinos in states like California, at
the local level, many Latinos lack fair participation and representation in the political process. Some jurisdictions reveal patterns
of racially polarized voting in at-large election systems that have the impermissible effect of diluting the minority vote. These
practices bar minority-preferred candidates from being elected onto city councils and local school boards where crucial policy
decisions are made regarding the shape and character of neighborhoods and the education of children. About 80% of California
cities hold at-large elections.
As a surnmer law clerk in the Mexican American Legal and Educational Fund (MALDEF) National Headquarters
Office in Los Angeles, under the supervision of noted voting rights attorney, Joaquin Avila, I will assist lead counsel with trial
preparation for two ostensibly landmark and historic voting cases. Both involve the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, 42
U.S.C. § 1937, which provides a vehicle for challenging discriminatory election practices and procedures. The extensive list of
expert witnesses, the voluminous evidentiary documents produced, and numerous trial exhibits make my work on these
understaffed and under-funded complex cases especially critical.
The first, Ruiz v. Santa Maria, is a Section 2, Voting Rights Act, challenge scheduled for trial in July. The case was
reversed and remanded to the United States District Court for the Central District of California by the Ninth Circuit. The other,
Lopez v. Monterey County, involves Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, and was reversed and remanded by the United States
Supreme Court. The County’s proposed election changes to the Municipal Courts are currently undergoing review for
preclearance by the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.
Creating a Peer Advocacy Program for the HIV/AIDS affected community
of Santa Clara Co.
Since deciding to enter the legal laboratory of law school, I have looked for a path leading to community
involvement. I believe that a legal education must go beyond the confines of classrooms, library cubicles, and
computer stations. For me, providing legal services to a disadvantaged segment of my community is a necessary step
in appreciating the law's powerful force over the most basic aspects of our lives. I have chosen to realize my interest
in community involvement by interning with an organization which provides direct legal services to those living
with HIV or AIDS. I believe this line of work to be particularly valuable as it deals with a group of people who have
been subject to social isolation, stigmatization, and disparate treatment under the color of law. I believe that my
proposal - developing a peer advocacy program through the creation of a manual of agency guidelines -will help to
lessen the effect of such social inequities. Persons with HIV or AIDS interested in volunteering will be able to use
the "how-to" manual for guidance on how to provide direct legal advocacy for the agency's clients. With a written
memorialization of the agency's protocol in hand, peer volunteers will have the tools necessary to navigate through
such legal issues as employment discrimination, medical confidentiality, reasonable accommodation requests, and
fair housing. Such a mentoring program will be an effective and valuable way to build a self-supporting community
for those living with AIDS or HIV. Finally, I believe that the advocacy program will become a vehicle for the
self-empowerment of the peer volunteers.
Creating a 'Self-Help’ Resource for the Mentally Disabled:
While working with the Economic Rights unit of the Mental Health Advocacy Project (MHAP), I will be
creating a 'self-help' book of resources and guidelines for the mentally disabled and their case managers in Santa
Clara County. This book will contain information such as: "How to get Social Security" and "What to do when you
move into a new apartment" in a single, easy to use format. Mental health consumers will be able to use this
resource to increase their self-sufficiency and awareness of their rights. After completing the book, I will train case
Managers on its use. This will enable them to better and more efficiently advise their clients. I will also participate
in other outreach efforts to bring this information to the clients and community. Finally, as I work with clients, I will
be able to put this information to work. While working on this book, I will also be involved in client advocacy on
issues such as General Assistance, consumer protection, and equal access to public services -- helping the mentally
disabled secure their economic rights.
My work will have both long-term and immediate effects as I both help mental health consumers and make
it easier for others to do so in the future. Moreover, it will address a critical human rights issue in the United States.
The rights of the mentally disabled are often neglected or compromised through ignorance. I believe that- by
working with the MHAP, I can, through advocacy and outreach, promote the human rights of this underprivileged
group while making a difference in individual lives. Working with this organization will allow me to gain
experience in both human rights and public interest law while working for a cause that I believe in - the basic dignity
and respect due to all human beings.
Cruel but Usual Punishment: Human Rights Violations in Bay Area Prisons
According to the law, prison personnel may place inmates in solitary confinement if they reveal an intent to cause harm to
themselves or others. But despite the prohibition of this practice, prisoners are routinely confined without legal justification, for
discipline and punitive purposes.
Through the authority of the San Francisco sheriff, Prisoner Legal Services ensures that prisoners receive their legal
entitlements, reduces unjust practices within prisons, and promotes more successful re-entry for inmates into the community.
This summer, while working with this organization to provide direct legal services to prisoners, I intend to document and
analyze their individual experiences with solitary confinement and make recommendations to the sheriff for procedural
improvements in local prisons. This Will:
5 Ensure that prisoners receive necessary mental health treatment rather than harmful confinement.
0 Prevent current patterns of racism in the use of confinement for illegal punishment purposes.
M Stop the violation of prisoners' rights by promoting less abusive alternatives to confinement.
With extensive counseling and direct services experience, I am equipped to work with inmates on their individual issues and
address systematic problems within the prisons. I am excited to explore criminal law issues while protecting the human rights of
prisoners.
"DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN INSULAR COMMUNITIES: ASSERTING THE RIGHTS OF IMMIGRANT
BATTERED WOMEN UNDER THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT
Imagine that you had to choose between the following two alternatives: remain in an abusive relationship or be
deported to a distant country, possibly without your children. What would you do? This is the precise dilemma faced by
numerous immigrant battered women, who rely upon the mercy of their battering U.S. citizen or resident husbands to
legalize their status by supplying the requisite sponsorship documents. These husbands are typically reluctant to do so;
they prefer to keep their wives undocumented and excluded from mainstream domestic violence programs. They use the
threat of deportation, frequently to countries where there is little economic opportunity for women, as a means of
securing their subordination. Thus, many immigrant battered women have traditionally chosen to stay with their
abusers, even at the risk of great harm to themselves or their children.
'Me Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994 was designed in part to provide a critical legal escape hatch
for these women by letting them become legal permanent residents without the aid of their abusive spouses. In
particular, VAWA laws allow them to circumvent traditional residency requirements by permitting them to self-petition
both for themselves and for their dependent children.
Unfortunately, most VAWA applicants require something that is often prohibitively expensive and generally
unavailable - competent legal representation. My project will allow me to provide some of this much-needed advocacy.
Specifically, I will be offering free legal services to VAWA clients in conjunction with the Legal Department of the
International Institute of the East Bay, a local non-profit organization that has recently taken a lead in filing VAWA
claims.
My basic duties will include conducting intake for VAWA cases, preparing declarations and exhibits, and
accompanying clients to INS hearings. I also plan to produce a handbook about VAWA and its requirements to be
distributed among local domestic violence service providers. Because I am bilingual in Spanish, it is my desire to
translate the handbook into Spanish, with the possibility of its being translated into still other languages. Finally, I hope
to travel to a number of East Bay battered women’s shelters to conduct workshops for both staff and guests about the
VAWA self-petitioning process. It is my goal that by disseminating more information on VAWA, more immigrant
battered women may elect to take advantage of its opportunities.
Don't Sweat It:
Challenging High-Tech Sweatshops in the Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is celebrated for its innovative and prosperous economy, but in its midst are electronics
production workers who are subject to labor rights abuses more commonly associated with the nineteenth
century, or with third-world countries. A large number of these workers are Asian Pacific American, South
Asian and Latino immigrants, who are often monolingual and unaware of their rights under United States
labor law. Employed by contract manufacturers, this hidden workforce is subject to widespread violations of
labor laws, including minimum wage, overtime, health and safety, and child labor laws. State officials are
cracking down on such violations, but the problems are systemic and require ongoing monitoring and
enforcement.
This summer I will join the non-profit Asian Law Caucus to challenge sweatshop employment
conditions in the electronics industry of the Silicon Valley. This project will apply techniques from successful
challenges to sweatshop conditions in the garment industry - an industry with marked similarities to
electronics manufacturing. I will provide direct legal services, participate in impact litigation, conduct policy
advocacy, and train workers to enforce their rights. I will also help the Asian Law Caucus, in conjunction
with other advocates and community service organizations, develop the first legal services program focused
on the employment issues of low-income immigrant workers in the Silicon Valley. This project will extend
needed services to an under-served community. More broadly, this project also seeks to develop and test new
models for advancing the employment rights of immigrant workers in the global economy.
End Warehousing of Disabled Medicaid Recipients: Ensuring Community-Based Living Alternatives for
Residents of Laguna Honda Hospital
The City of San Francisco is planning to rebuild Laguna Honda Hospital, a 1200-bed nursing facility that
provides nursing care to poor people with developmental, physical and mental disabilities. Disability rights
organizations in the Bay Area believe the $600 million could be better spent providing community-based services
for residents of the facility. Community-based services would allow these disabled people to live more
independently in houses and apartments and take part in San Francisco's diverse neighborhoods, rather than being
warehoused in the large hospital. Residents prefer these alternatives, and most experts recognize that better and
less-expensive care can be provided in community programs.
This summer I will work on a class-action lawsuit whose goal is diverting the money reserved for Laguna
Honda toward providing community-based programs. I will be working with Protection & Advocacy, Inc., a national
organization that has provided direct services and initiated cutting-edge impact litigation on behalf of the disabled
community in California for over 22 years. Last semester I researched several issues relating to the Laguna Honda
lawsuit as part of a disability rights seminar, so I am familiar with this area of law. I will be helping a
multi-organizational legal team research issues relating to the lawsuit. More importantly, I will serve as a contact to
the residents of Laguna Honda. Because class-action litigation can take years, it is important to fulfill the goals of
the litigation without losing sight of the community it is designed to help. My role will be to interview individual
residents and keep them informed about what is happening with the lawsuit or any settlement negotiations. Through
my work, I will help ensure that the hospital residents are educated and empowered through their role in the lawsuit.
Fight Discrimination Against Women With Breast Cancer
It is estimated that one in every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her life. While the
effects of the disease itself may be well publicized, the legal issues related to the disease are not. Following a diagnosis of
breast cancer, women often become entangled in a downward spiral of devastating effects, frequently marked by the denial of
insurance coverage for reconstructive surgery, wigs, prostheses and bone marrow transplants and the classification of breast
cancer as a preexisting condition barring later insurance coverage. Other repercussions include eviction, job loss, credit
problems, marital dissolution and the termination of child custody. While all breast cancer victims must face the debilitating
physical, emotional and economic effects of the disease, uninsured women and women of color frequently fare the worst.
The California Women's Law Center's Breast Cancer Legal Project offers free legal services to women with breast
cancer on the full range of legal, consumer and access issues they face. The program is the only one of its kind, offering
services specifically geared towards problems arising from the disease, with the goal of assisting women with breast cancer in
solving their legal problems before they are rendered sicker or impoverished by them. Project staff combine the provision of
direct legal services with education and outreach among underserved communities, with a specific focus on non-English
speaking women who are unlikely to know that they can seek legal redress for their problems.
As an extern, I will be responsible for conducting client intake, researching the specific legal issues involved in
individual client's cases, participating in outreach and public education about the disease and its legal effects and remedies,
and preparing a policy brief detailing what women can do to get and maintain health insurance benefits. At some point in your
life, chances are that someone close to you will be afflicted by the disease. By supporting this project, you are increasing the
likelihood that the barriers experienced by others will not plague you or the women you love.
GENERAL RELEEF ADVOCACY PROJECT: The Last Resort for the Poorest of the Poor
The need for counsel among indigent and homeless populations has never been more dire. At the same time earned income for
the poor was decreasing, assistance programs were severely cut. To make matters worse, for years the government at all levels
has been slashing funding for legal services to the poor.
General Relief and Food Stamp benefits are often the last resort for most impoverished people and can prevent the loss of
shelter, personal possessions, as well as the downward spiral of hopelessness and despair. Unfortunately, the system is often
punitive, making it as hard as possible for people to apply and retain benefits.
My work this summer at Public Counsel's Homelessness Prevention Law Project will be advocating for the rights of homeless
individuals and families before various administrative agencies through the General Relief Advocacy Project (GRAP). I will
work on-site in multiple Department of Social Services (DPSS) offices helping clients all over Los Angeles county secure
shelter, clothing, food and other vital benefits. Through an "advocate liaison" system, I will have direct access to high-level
officials with the authority to reverse case terminations and sanctions. People whose benefits have been wrongfully terminated,
often need assistance working through the bureaucratic labyrinth of General Relief and Food Stamp benefits. The sums are
pittance, but for many they offer the last alternative to outright hunger and homelessness.
This project is the only public interest law project in Los Angeles that works on-site in multiple DPSS offices where hungry and
homeless individuals are most likely to need advice and advocacy assistance. Last summer, GRAP volunteers advocated for the
rights of over 1,500 homeless and indigent clients in the Los Angeles area.
Housing Rights for Latino Tenants:
Eviction Defense and Tenant Empowerment
Looking for a new apartment in the Bay Area? Friends are likely to grimace and
dolefully offer their condolences, following up with a horror story about their own
search. But imagine how much harder finding new housing is for low-income
Spanish-speaking families on the verge of eviction. In San Mateo County Oust south
of San Francisco), the only source of legal services for Spanish speaking tenants is La
Raza Centro Legal's housing rights project, where I plan to work this summer. The
project focuses both on helping protect tenants from eviction and on giving them the
knowledge and tools to enforce their rights, aiding approximately 5,000 people a
year.
A large part of the summer's activity will focus on a case that will be going to trial in
which a landlord responded to tenants' concerns about extreme health and safety
violations by calling the INS in an attempt to have the "trouble-makers" deported
from the United States. This landlord, like so many others, almost succeeded in
evading the responsibility to provide fit housing by playing off of the vulnerabilities
of the tenants. I will also work at six neighborhood sites throughout San Mateo
County, helping tenants who have received eviction notices by providing answers to
the complaints and representing tenants at settlement conferences. These areas of
work explicitly address the ways in which poverty, race, and immigration status work
together to strip vulnerable tenants of their housing, forcing them to become homeless
or move out of the Bay Area altogether. A focus on aiding such tenants is crucial to
prevent the racial and class homogenization of the Bay Area.
"Human Rights Work in Pristina, Kosovo"
I will be working this summer for International Aid (IA), a human rights NGO focusing on
medical relief at their mission in Pristina, Kosovo. My central responsibility will be to advise
the Program Director on international human rights law, and to use this knowledge to help IA
implement its programs. In this capacity, I will also assist the IA Program Director with data
collection relevant to IA's various projects, advise on policy issues relating to IA’s initiatives
with Kosovar minority groups, coordinate inter-agency cooperation, and monitor national staff.
One of my specific tasks will be to explore the feasibility of a mediation/conflict resolution
program aimed at reducing ethnic mob violence.
All NGO-sponsored relief programs must acquire United Nations Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) approval prior to implementation. Various treaties and agreements allocate certain
tasks and subject matters to various UN sister agencies. This requirement, together with the UN
bureaucracy, creates a bureaucratic tangle of international human rights law.
As an example of this tangle, IA has spent the last several months trying to implement a
program designed to train Kosovar elementary school teachers on how to recognize signs of war
trauma in students, and what the teachers should then do to ensure that traumatized children
receive proper counseling. This program's multiple foci-children, schools, and mental health
made it exceptionally difficult to implement. IA first approached UNMIK for approval.
UNMIK said that because the program involves schools, UNICEF must approve. UNICEF then
said that because the program involves mental health, the World Health Organization must
approve. This piecemeal approach wasted a considerable amount of time and needlessly
exasperated an already difficult environment within which to work. I will likely face similar
hurdles. I hope to use my knowledge of human rights law, the UN Charter, treaties, Resolutions,
and Declarations to analyze IA's initiatives, navigate the UN bureaucracy, and expedite UN approval
for IA’s programs.
Jobs, Justice, and Big Ships: The Port of Oakland and Project Labor Agreements
The Port of Oakland, labor representatives, and Oakland community members recently succeeded in
approving the largest and most progressive project labor agreement in the history of the United States. The
agreement provides for half of the work hours on the Port of Oakland's $1.3 billion construction expansion to be
completed by residents of Oakland, Alameda, Emeryville, and San Leandro. Further, it dedicates $10-$15 million in
contracts for small, local, minority-, and women-owned businesses. This agreement begins to address the persistent
unemployment problem in the communities surrounding the port, and offers deserving local businesses a share of
the work. It is the result of the endurance and patience of many community members and economic development
actors.
This summer I will work with one of these actors, the National Economic Development and Law Center in
Oakland. I will have two goals. First, I will assist community members and labor representatives in the
implementation phase of this agreement and ensure that disadvantaged communities get their fair share. Second, I
will compare this agreement with other project labor agreements around the country and compile a list of "best
practices" for bargaining and implementing future project labor agreements. Community members and nonprofit
organizations will access this compilation through the National Economic Development and Law Center's website.
Project labor agreements can produce: real results-- valuable jobs for hard-hit communities, formal
community involvement in large public works' projects, and a step along the path of personal and community
empowerment. Now is a crucial time to support a precedent-setting project labor agreement in Oakland, and my
work will help disadvantaged communities nationwide benefit from project labor agreements.
Latina Women and HIV: Confronting the Crisis in Legal Care
There is currently an HIV crisis among the U.S. Latina population. Though Latinos comprise only I I%
of the U.S. population, Latina women comprise 20% of reported AIDS cases among women. Despite recent
funding cuts to legal services, there are resources available to assist HIV-positive, Latina women living in
Alameda County. Unfortunately, these services are not being adequately used. The goal of my summer project is
to increase the utilization of legal services by HIV-positive, Latina women in Alameda County.
I will work at the East Bay Community Law Center's HIV/AIDS Law Project, providing direct legal
services to low-income, HIV-positive women and their families through the Family Care Network. The Network
is a coalition of medical, legal and social support organizations serving a primarily female population. In
addition to assisting these women with a variety of legal issues, I propose to identify the particular needs of
Latina women as well as the legal, social, and cultural barriers that currently impede their access to the services
available. This will be done through clinic outreach, networking with other care providers, interviewing Latina
women currently served by EBCLC, and taking to the streets. I will evaluate the effectiveness of using an on-site
multidisciplinary model of providing legal services for the HIV-positive, Latina community and suggest changes
to better assist these women with their unique legal needs in the future.
LEGAL YOUTH CLINICS FOR MINORITY STUDENTS IN LOS ANGELES
Youth of color are increasingly under attack. Ill-conceived policies systematically trample on their
already limited rights, from the denial of public assistance to the passage of Proposition 2 1. Now, more
than ever, youth need the help of public interest attorneys to reassert their legal rights. I will work with
Public Counsel's Youth Clinics in an effort to counter this encroachment upon the basic rights of our
children. Public Counsel is the largest pro bono organization in the country. Serious problems face students
in Los Angeles including access to health care and foodstamps, violence in the home or in a relationship,
incessant harassment, obtaining child support and custody, concerns about immigration status, and
repressive anti-youth injunctions. Youth Clinics give individualized legal counseling to low-income
students of color in Los Angeles. Clinics directly address the issues facing students by providing youth a
forum to voice their concerns and an opportunity for legal resolution.
Each week I will hold office hours at high schools and middle schools in at-risk communities. Latinos
comprise 80 percent of the target population, the rest are African American, Asian, and Armenian students.
Clinics occur during school hours, making it convenient for students to access the service. Since Los Angeles
public schools are on a year-round system, classes will meet on a normal schedule during the summer. After
speaking with the students, my supervising attorney and I will decide how best to assist each student. This will
involve researching the cases, finding the best legal remedy (or other solutions such as counseling), and
attending trials or hearings with the youth.
In addition, I will give presentations to classes in various high schools. Past presentations include
overviews of youth legal rights, issues of immigration, access to food stamps or health care, legal rights when
confronted with police and police abuse, how to establish good credit, and basic banking and financing skills.
Youth Clinics are crucial in ensuring that the law is used for children, rather than against them.
Mississippi Post-Conviction Counsel Project (MPCP)
Representing Death Row Inmates
The death penalty is most often imposed on poor defendants who have inadequate legal counsel. In fact,
many of these defendants receive even less than inadequate representation - they receive virtually none. Courts
often fail to remedy these inadequacies even on appeal. As a Texas judge recently stated: "The Constitution says
that everyone is entitled to an attorney of their choice. But the Constitution does not say that the lawyer has to be
awake." Obviously, quality post-conviction representation is vital.
Mississippi is unique in its failure to fund capital post-conviction representation. In 1995, Congress
de-funded the Mississippi Capital Defense Resource Center; thus condemned prisoners have no right to paid
counsel in litigating their state post-conviction claims. Today, MPCP's two attorneys are the only practitioners
solely devoted to the defense of death row prisoners in postconviction proceedings in the state. This summer I have
the opportunity to assist in MPCP's small office and their numerous clients.
While working with the MPCP, I will: (1) assist with litigation aimed at ensuring adequate funding for
post-conviction death penalty defense (drafting motions that look to California law as a potential model); (2)
organize a training for Mississippi lawyers willing to represent condemned prisoners in post-conviction
proceedings (researching & writing materials, contacting potential speakers, and contacting lawyers); (3) assist
direct representation of death-sentenced prisoners in post-conviction proceedings.
My life experiences have prepared me for this challenging work. Living and working in Mississippi for
two years gave me experience with the institutions and history that make Mississippi a very unique place. In that
time I developed a personal attachment to the state and its people. I have experience working with prisoners. Last
year, I worked in a halfway house counseling and assessing violent offenders who were in transition from prison to
the community. That job made me mindful of the importance of community safety while respecting the rights of
prisoners. I want to use my skills and persvective to aid those in death row in Mississippi. Thank you for
considering this project.
Not Exactly Fair Game:
Challenging Discrimination Against Minorities and Women in College Sports.
If you're like me, you've spent the last few weeks watching a lot of college basketball. What most of us
don't see on the court, however, is the reality of ongoing discrimination against minorities and women in college
sports. Two examples of this are especially widespread. First, the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) requires all potential student-athletes at major schools to achieve a particular minimum score on the SAT in
order to compete as freshmen and receive athletic scholarships, though it has been shown that such a rule has a
disparate impact on African American athletes. Second, women athletes often find that their schools act in flagrant
violation of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in college athletics, by maintaining facilities for women's
teams that are both separate and unequal to those of the men.
Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (TLPJ) is working to prevent such discrimination. TLPJ, founded by
Ralph Nader, is a national public interest law firm that prosecutes high-profile, high-impact, cutting-edge cases
designed to make new law and expose wrongdoing that threatens substantive civil rights. Most recently, TLPJ has
put its resources into preserving the existence of "disparate impact" lawsuits, which allow citizens to challenge
public policies and practices that have discriminatory effects. If state governments and private entities acting in
public forums are able to say that discrimination is only illegal if it is "intentional," the African American and
women athletes mentioned above - as well as countless other minority and disenfranchised groups - would no
longer have the fundamental right to be free from the discriminatory effects of seemingly neutral policies.
I will spend my summer at TLPJ fighting the backlash against disparate impact lawsuits by working on two
cases: the appeal in a case against the NCAA, where the trial court agreed that the standardized test cutoff score
does not bear a significant relationship to the NCAA's goal of high student-athlete graduation rates; and the trial in
a Title IX case where a college retaliated against its women's softball coach when he complained about gender
inequity in the school's athletic program. I will be doing legal research and writing, case review, and brainstorming
with TLPJ attorneys on legal theories that support the use of the disparate impact standard in civil rights lawsuits.
As a second-year, certified law student, I will also be able to actively help TLPJ's attorneys in litigating these cases.
I believe that my work this summer will not only promote equality in college athletics; it will help to preserve the
right of all minority and disenfranchised groups to fight back against the day-to-day effects of discrimination.
PROTECTING EQUAL ACCESS TO EDUCATION:
Prevent African-American Children from Being Improperly Placed
in Classes for the Mentally Retarded
In 1979, the U.S. District court for the Northern District of California found in Larry P. v. Riles
that I.Q. tests were resulting in the disproportionate placement of African-American students in dead-end,
stigmatizing classes for what was then known as the educably mentally retarded ("E.M.R."). The court
held that the I.Q. tests were inherently racially and culturally biased, having a discriminatory impact on
African-American children, and invalid for placing them in special education classes. The remedy
included a permanent injunction prohibiting the use of I.Q. tests on African-American children for
placement into E.M.R. classes. A lawsuit filed in December 1999 is challenging the protections provided
by that injunction, putting African-American students at risk of once again being placed in classes for the
mentally retarded on the basis of I.Q. tests that systematically underestimate their intelligence and
disproportionately diagnose them as mentally retarded.
This summer I will be working with Public Advocates, Inc. on litigation to maintain the
protections provided by the Larry P injunction while concurrently promoting alternative, non-biased,
assessment practices. With your support, I will help to represent and advocate for African-American
public school children who might be wrongly placed in special education classes if placement is based on
I.Q. testing.
My project will focus primarily on the actual litigation, but will also include working with the
African-American community to address special education concerns generally. In support of the
litigation, I will assist in conducting factual investigations, organizing the class, drafting documents, and
preparing for courtroom proceedings. Outside of the litigation, I will work with other concerned groups,
such as parents, educators, and psychologists, to mount resistance to I.Q. testing and other detrimental
California Department of Education policies. I will also help to educate and empower the African
American community by creating educational brochures, giving presentations, drafting press releases, and
monitoring proposed legislation.
Before the 1979 injunction was in place, about 27 percent of the children in classes for the
mentally retarded were African-American, even though they represented only 9 percent of the total school
population. My work this summer will be aimed at preventing a return to this overrepresentation and
ensuring equal access to quality education for African-American youths.
Providing Bay Area Latino Immigrants Legal Services in Political Asylum,
VAWA, Defense Against Deportation, and NACARA
Latinos are the fastest growing population in California. Latino immigrants are routinely
exploited in the work place. They are often hesitant to utilize our society's basic services, such as health
care, education, police and legal protection. Moreover, immigrants face the constant fear of deportation,
which can include separation from one's family or returning to an economically and/or politically
tumultuous environment. La Raza Centro Legal provides the legal representation that San Francisco and
Bay Area low-income Latino immigrants need. La Raza has provided free, direct legal services to low
income communities in the Bay Area for 26 years, servicing 10,000 people each year in a variety of
substantive areas of the law.
This summer, I will be providing legal assistance to Latino immigrants in various areas of
immigration law, including, Political Asylum, VAWA Petitions, Defense Against Deportation, and
NACARA. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) allows spouses/children who have sustained
abuse from their parent/spouse to apply for citizenship where the abuser is an American citizen. The act is
intended to assist battered women to end abusive relationships where one element of the woman's fear of
leaving the spouse is the fear of deportation.
For both VAWA petitions and clients petitioning Political Asylum, I will conduct intense,
sensitive and detailed interviews, documenting both clients' life stories and witness' accounts. I will also
compile documentation packets regarding home country conditions, demonstrating a lack of
health/women's support organizations for VAWA clients and continued persecution of refugees for
Political Asylum clients. Careful documentation is especially important in my work defending clients
against deportation because 1996 immigration law increased the burden of proof required to successfully
defend against deportation. It must be demonstrated that the client's spouse or parent, who is a citizen, will
suffer "exceptional and unusual hardship" if the client were deported. Lastly, upon my arrival, La Raza
will issue Public Service Announcements to the community regarding the recently implemented NACARA,
which they have been unable to do thus far as they have not had the staff to process the high volume of
applicants anticipated. I will process NACARA applications and provide representation for clients at
administrative interviews. I choose to work in immigration law this summer, because I will be able to
make a significant, long-lasting difference in my clients' lives.
Re-claiming and Re-BUILDing Communities: BUILD Youth Entrepreneurs
Them is a dark side to the economic boom. Many low-income Bay Area residents are
being forced out of their homes by soaring housing prices and shortages. Committed to stopping
this trend, and to combating poverty and its related issues, the East Palo Alto Community Law
Project provides leadership, support, and guidance to residents of East Palo Alto and Eastern
Menlo Park in their efforts to revitalize their local economies and reclaim their communities.
This summer I will work with BUILD (Business United in Investing, Lending and
Development), a key player in the Law Project's community economic development program.
BUILD's primary target population is at-risk youth. Using business development as a vehicle to
empowerment, the BUILD Youth Entrepreneur program seeks to foster youths' confidence in
their own futures and in their ability to shape the future of their communities. Through
participation in a business-training curriculum, youth develop skills in communication, public
speaking, teamwork, goal setting and negotiation, in addition to learning basic financial
management and economic literacy. After completing the curriculum, students research business
endeavors, develop business plans with the help of professional mentors, and present their ideas
to local venture capitalists. BUILD then helps the students obtain seed financing.
BUILD Youth Entrepreneurs will finish its first semester this spring. I was hired to assist
the program's director with strategic planning and decision making about the program's future.
My responsibilities will include researching the legal and organizational structure of similar
programs, initiating incorporation of a subsidiary organization to increase the legal funding
options for youth businesses, and developing a business incubator to keep viable businesses
sustainable while students pursue work or college opportunities. I will also be responsible for
initiating partnerships with organizations like Kaplan and Princeton Review to develop a
network of support and potential funding sources for college-bound youth. The goal of my
summer project is to maximize BUILD's utility and responsiveness in order to provide the most
comprehensive, effective services possible to youth and their communities.
Securing Voting Rights, Redistricting Education, and Labor Rights through Impact
Litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund-SF
My summer project at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
(MALDEF) in San Francisco is to take advantage of the Census 2000 frenzy to contribute
to the empowerment of the Latino community, especially in California, in the areas of
voting rights, redistricting, and labor rights. My main role will be assisting Lead Counsel,
Denise Hulett, in the infamous Ruiz v. Santa Maria case (on remand from the 9th Circuit)
that will be going to trial in July. Santa Maria is a HUGE, LANDMARK, PRECEDENT
SETTING CASE for both the Latino community and all minority voters. In Santa Maria,
the Latino electorate of Santa Maria, CA claims that the city council elections in violate
the Voting Rights Act because the "minority-preferred candidate" tends to lose to the
"white-preferred" candidate due to vote dilution. I will assist in preparing expert
witnesses, drafting pre-trial motions, gathering background information on Santa Maria,
researching legal issues to refute Defendant's expert witnesses. A second part of my
clerkship will include the research and update of redistricting training manuals for several
community-based organizations and agencies to help them understand the importance of
redistricting. The third, and final, component of my project is to assist in drafting the
brief that will be submitted to the court for approval of the settlement in the case of
Brionez v. USDA. I will also be working on obtaining witnesses for the fairness trial. Not
only will my summer project be exciting and challenging, but it will also make a
substantial contribution to the advancement of civil rights for Latinas and Latinos in the
United States.
Spank the INS! Help Stop the Illegal Imprisonment of Thousands of Immigrants
Thousands of immigrants are currently being detained indefinitely by the United
States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in prisons and detention centers.
The INS has rendered these noncitizens "unremovable" merely due to their national
origins; they come from countries that they cannot return to, such as Laos, Vietnam,
Cuba, and the former Soviet Union. This policy is forty years old; however, recent laws
passed by an increasingly conservative and anti-immigration Congress have given the
INS more power to detain immigrants. Most of these "unremovables" will be imprisoned
for their entire lives, leaving some asking even for deportation to the countries from
which they fled as relief from permanent incarceration. Although a United States citizen
could never be detained indefinitely without due process protections, the INS is allowed
to imprison legal permanent residents even though many have lived in the U.S. for most
of their lives.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Immigrants' Rights Project,
established in 1987 to expand and enforce the fundamental rights of immigrants, is
working on federal class action lawsuits that raise systemic constitutional challenges
against this indefinite detention policy. It is conducting the largest litigation program in
the country dedicated to defending the constitutional rights of immigrants in cases across
the country.
As a summer intern, I will be assisting ACLU staff members in developing legal
arguments such that the spirit of the Constitution is respected and these immigrants are
released from their unlawful confinement. My work will entail thoroughly researching
constitutional and immigration law and producing briefs and other documents that will be
used by the ACLU in the course of litigation. I believe that the combination of my basic
legal education in research and writing as a second year law student along with my
special experience working with immigrants and refugees in both legal and non-legal
capacities will enable me to contribute particular skills and commitment to the task of
overturning and arbitrary and unfair policy.
TORTURE, FEAR, AND DEATH: FREEING REFUGEES FROM THE SPECTER OF DEPORTATION
This summer I am providing free legal services to refugees who have fled political persecution in Guatemala
and El Salvador. These individuals have witnessed their families executed by military firing squads and have had
children, parents, and friends "disappeared." They have suffered torture and other atrocities at the hands of both
their governments and guerrilla rebel forces. They have withstood violence to travel far, ending up in California. At
the East Bay Sanctuary they end their journey with hopes for a peaceful life. In many cases, deportation back to
Central America is tantamount to death.
I will be aiding these people to end their flight from gross human rights violations, gain recognition as political
refugees, and thereby win asylum. To avoid deportation, a refugee must expose the worst details of her horror to
strangers in impersonal interviews and hearings. It is my job to guide and accompany the refugees through an
arduous procedure filled with bureaucratic obstacles. I will represent them throughout the process to their final
interview at the San Francisco Asylum Office. In most cases, persistence and endurance is rewarded with asylum in
the United States.
I will be associated with The East Bay Sanctuary (EBSC) in Berkeley. While serving primarily Guatemalans
and El Salvadorans in the Bay Area, EBSC also relocates refugees to the Bay Area who initially arrive in other parts
of the nation. I will be working without compensation 40 hours a week with as many clients as possible in order to
preclude deportation. Since their inception in 1992, EBSC has never had a client deported because of a lost case.
Losing can mean deportation, and deportation can mean death.
Vital Legal Assistance to HIV-Positive People in the East Bay
My project attacks the substantial legal problems of HIV -positive individuals
in Alameda County. Alameda County suffers from one of the highest HIV infection
rates in the nation. The epidemic disproportionately affects women, children, Poor
people, and racial and sexual minorities. Compounding this problem is the fact that
extremely limited funding and - attention is paid to these problems in the East Bay.
In addition to suffering from a debilitating and isolating disease, HIV-Positive
people are faced with daunting practical realities in their everyday lives. Accessing
disability benefits from a confusing and intransigent government bureaucracy is a
frustrating and often unsuccessful experience. The same is true of health care and
financial benefits. Child care and custody issues are often a source of great stress for
HIV-positive people, particularly women- Expensive treatments for HIV disease
often leave its victims in dire financial straits; help with hostile creditors is a very
real need. Adequate housing, particularly in the Bay Area, is difficult to find for
those who are sick and financially strapped. In short, the needs are tremendous.
My summer project at the East Bay Community Law Center's HIV Unit will assist HIV-positive
individuals with these and other legal and practical concerns- By working on an ongoing basis with up to 15
HIV-positive clients this summer, I hope to help make the practical, everyday reality of living with HIV or
AIDS easier and more tolerable for them. I believe that this is a challenging yet realistic and achievable goal. I
also believe that it is extremely worthwhile and can make substantial differences in the levels of comfort and
quality of life of people whose lives are difficult enough. Living with HIV disease is tremendously challenging;
accessing benefits, obtaining basic legal services, and maintaining a decent standard of living shouldn't have to
be. I am eager to do my part this summer to help make the practical reality of living with HIV or AIDS in the
East Bay as easy as possible for my clients.