In a set of two companion cases against the “virtual real estate” company Everyrealm, Inc. in the Southern District of New York, former employees Teyo Johnson and Katherine Yost brought discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims. Notably, each plaintiff brought sexual harassment claims, in addition to other claims based on protected classes. The Access to Justice…
This case challenges Harvard University’s decade-long failure to protect students from sexual harassment and career-ending retaliation by Professor John Comaroff, one of the most world’s most renowned and powerful scholars in the field of anthropology. The complaint alleges that Harvard hired Professor Comaroff despite warnings that he sexually harassed students at the University of Chicago,…
This is a D.C. Circuit appeal about the availability of a private right of action to enforce Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which mandates that federal agencies’ websites and information technology be accessible to people with disabilities. Jahinnslerth Orozco has worked as an intelligence analyst for the FBI since 2012. Mr. Orozco…
This is a class action lawsuit against the County and City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD), the Sheriff of Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and the Chief of the LAPD, challenging the defendants’ policy of jailing arrested individuals who are unable to pay the monetary amounts set…
Neutral policies that harm people due to a protected status, like race, sex, or disability — even if they don’t intend to — create what’s called disparate impact. For example, it would be widely recognized as discrimination (or disparate treatment) if a landlord refused to rent to Black tenants. But what if the landlord had…
In this case, the Seventh Circuit held that a student-survivor’s resilience will not shield a university from civil rights liability for mishandling a report of sexual assault. While a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jane Doe was sexually assaulted by a star member of the University’s football team. The University, through its own disciplinary…
Public Justice is co-counsel in BookHolders v. DeHority, BookHolders v. Pletch, and BookHolders v. Steincamp, cases presenting issues of wage theft and illegal retaliation where we and our co-counsel are defending three Virginia Tech students who were sued by their former employer, a chain of college bookstores called BookHolders, after they reported to the Virginia Department…
Public Justice is co-counsel in this case in U.S. District Court in Florida on behalf of three former Scientology members. These former members brought claims for human trafficking and forced labor against the Church of Scientology, various other Scientology entities, and David Miscavige, the head of Scientology. Background The Plaintiffs claim that, as young children,…
Public Justice filed an amicus brief in support of the appellant in Grabowski v. Arizona Board of Regents, a Title IX case. In August 2017, Michael Grabowski enrolled at the University of Arizona as a freshman on academic and athletic scholarships. Almost as soon as he joined the University’s cross-country/track team, Michael’s teammates started harassing…