Department of Legal Counsel
Amicus Support CSS has been an active participant in supporting
other litigation brought by our colleagues in the public interest
bar through amicus curiae briefs to judges in both federal and
state courts. For example, our briefs have been submitted to the
U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to ensure that the full protections
of the Voting Rights Act are enforced consistent with the guarantees
of the National Voter Registration Act (Young v. Fordice), to the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in support of a low-income
membership organization to assert standing to bring voting rights
claims (ACORN v. Fowler), to the New York Court of Appeals to challenge
the state’s decision to deny health insurance to immigrants
(Allessa v. Novello) and to stop the privatization of public hospitals
(Campaign to Save Our Public Hospitals v. Giuliani), and before
the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn in support of bilingual language
assistance for indigent criminal defendants (U.S. v. Quesada
Mosquera).
Within this past year we have authored and filed amicus briefs
with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in both Sanchez
v. Turner (a case challenging New York City’s policy of prohibiting
advocates’ access to welfare centers to assist unrepresented
welfare claimants) and Colon v. City of New York (arguing that
Work Experience Program – WEP workers – were “employees” for
the purposed of pursing racial and sexual discrimination claims);
with the New York State Appellate Division in Robinson v. Martinez (a state court case challenging the city’s public housing
tenancy termination proceedings); and with the New York Court of
Appeals in Notre Dame Leasing v. Rosario (a case arguing for the
right of welfare recipients to withhold their rent from landlords
when they fail to correct dangerous, hazardous, or detrimental
building conditions). |
