What’s at Stake Protecting trans students from “forced outing” policies. Summary In 2023, Temecula Valley Unified School District adopted a forced outing policy. The rule required schools to inform a student’s parents or guardians if they requested to use a name or pronoun, or access school facilities or programs, not aligned with the sex identified…
What’s at Stake When a new law is enacted, it must also be interpreted and applied correctly by courts. That’s why the first legal cases regarding a new law can be extremely important. This case is about ensuring a 2022 law protecting access to justice is correctly applied and interpreted in the U.S. Court of…
Wellpath is one of the largest providers of correctional health care services in the United States. On any given day, Wellpath is responsible for providing care to more than 220,000 people at over 400 carceral facilities, including prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers. Since its creation in 2018, Wellpath has been named in hundreds of…
What’s at Stake The amount of time a survivor has to file a lawsuit under Title IX. Summary Just before she turned 21, E.R., a South Carolina resident, filed a lawsuit against her former school district, Beaufort County School District, for violating her Title IX rights. As a student at Bluffton High School, E.R. suffered…
What’s at Stake Protecting trans students from “forced outing” policies. Summary During the summer of 2023, Chino Valley Unified School District adopted Board Policy 5020.1, a forced outing policy. Under this rule, if a student requested to use a name or pronoun, or access school facilities or programs, not aligned with the sex identified on…
Exactly when is the removal of decrepit, inoperable hydroelectric dams NOT in the public interest? In cooperation with American Whitewater and Earthrise Law Center, Public Justice is challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) decision allowing a corporation to surrender its license to operate the Somersworth Hydroelectric Project without first requiring the removal of the…
What’s at Stake The rights of transgender students in South Carolina to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Summary In 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit confirmed that transgender students must be allowed to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Yet, in the summer of 2024, South Carolina passed…
What’s at Stake Whether a school district is liable when it fails to take obvious steps to prevent sexual abuse. Summary Crystal Ayon’s five-year-old daughter was sexually abused by her school bus driver for months. Crystal noticed something was wrong when the bus began to drop her daughter off a half hour late, but when…
What’s at Stake Whether or not federal law overrides (preempts) state-level disclosure laws for harmful chemicals. Case Details As a landscaper, David Schaffner spent nearly three decades working with the pesticide Roundup. In 2006, Mr. Schaffner developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma. People with heavy exposure to glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, have a 41% higher chance…