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Transgender Law Center v. Ice: Ninth Circuit Rules ICE Failed to Meet FOIA Requirements After Death of Detainee
Full text linkThis case summary details the decision in Transgender L. Ctr. v. Immigr. & Customs Enf’t, 46 F.4th 771 (9th Cir. 2022), in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit analyzed whether the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) had properly responded to a request for information pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. § 552). The Transgender Law Center (TLC) had filed a complaint of an asylum-seeker who had died in the custody of ICE. In furtherance of its claim, TLC had submitted two FOIA requests regarding the circumstances of the complainant’s death. Due to a perceived lack of timeliness and inadequacy of the responses, TLC filed suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. Although the district court granted TLC’s request for a declaratory judgment that the agencies had failed to timely respond to their FOIA requests, the district court in all other respects ruled for the defending agencies. TLC timely appealed to the Ninth Circuit, and the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit considered several aspects of the defending agencies’ responses, including the adequacy of the government’s search; the sufficiency of the defending agencies’ Vaughn indexes; whether withholdings and redactions complied with FOIA exemptions; the segregability of certain information; whether duplicative and non-responsive designations were appropriate; and whether the defending agencies had properly responded to expedited processing requests. Ultimately, the Ninth Circuit held that government agencies must provide precise, easily reviewable explanations when asserting exemptions to the FOIA. Further, government agencies defending themselves in FOIA complaints must establish the adequacy of their searches beyond a material doubt, with any exemptions interpreted narrowly. Finally, this case illuminates what constitutes “adequacy” by laying out precisely what must be disclosed in a response to an FOIA request
A Vicious Cycle: United States’ Failure to Protect Immigrant Women’s Reproductive Rights at the Irwin County Detention Center
Full text linkThe United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) detained Jane Doe #15, an immigrant woman, at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Georgia. During Jane’s time at ICDC, Doctor Mahendra Amin hastily examined her because she was experiencing severe pain in her pelvic area. Abandoning established professional and legal protocols for diagnosis and treatment, the medical staff scheduled Jane for surgery. Jane did not know what to expect from the surgery or what the medical personnel would do. After the surgery, the staff at ICDC neglected Jane’s care. She could not get out of bed on her own; her wounds would not stop bleeding and eventually became infected. Two months later, Dr. Amin, after refusing to answer Jane’s questions, told Jane she could no longer have children. Unfortunately, this story of abuse at the ICDC is not an isolated situation. Immigrant women detained at the ICDC have been suffering egregious medical abuse for decades. Advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Project, and Project South, have raised concerns about the ICDC’s treatment of immigrants at the facility. Further, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspection reports, the ICDC continues to violate national detention standards. Recently, in September 2020, a whistleblower complaint by a licensed practical nurse at the ICDC exposed the nonconsensual and unnecessary gynecological procedures performed on immigrant women at the facility. This Comment focuses on advancing the reproductive rights of immigrant women held in detention centers in Georgia. In particular, this Comment recommends that the Georgia General Assembly enact legislation prohibiting the sterilization of any individual imprisoned in its state. Part I discusses the historical background of forced sterilization. Part II reviews pending cases of immigrant women who have filed suit against the ICDC challenging medically unnecessary and non-consensual gynecological procedures performed on them. Part III describes the relevant law and standards in detention centers. Part IV examines how the DHS, ICE, and the ICDC violated detained women’s fundamental rights guaranteed under domestic and international law. Part V provides recommendations to the state of Georgia
Insanity and Incompetency: Courts, Communities, and the Intersections of Mental Illness and Criminal Justice in the Wake of Kahler and Trueblood
Full text linkToday, people with mental illnesses in the United States are ten times more likely to be incarcerated than hospitalized. About 20 percent of the United States population experiences some kind of mental illness each year, and about 3 to 5 percent of the population experiences a severe and persistent mental illness. By contrast, more than 60 percent of jail inmates and at least 45 percent of prison inmates in the United States have a diagnosed mental illness. Studies have found that anywhere from 25 percent to 71 percent of people with serious mental illness in a given community have a history of criminal justice involvement. There are many reasons for these disparities, but the presence of a mental illness alone increases an individual’s likelihood of being arrested or shot by police. Inadequate access to mental health care, among other unmet needs, is considered to be a significant contributor to this overrepresentation. People with mental illnesses who commit crimes and enter the criminal justice system might not have engaged in such behavior if they had been receiving adequate and appropriate mental health treatment instead. Mental health care access in the United States has consistently failed to meet the demand. The American Psychiatric Association has declared this phenomenon a crisis. Part I of this Comment lays the contextual groundwork for a discussion of state competency restoration systems and of the insanity defense. Part II defines and differentiates competency and insanity, distinct areas of the law applied to distinct legal questions bearing on defendants with mental illnesses. Part II first describes the origins of competency restoration and its place in constitutional law, discusses some of the failures of the competency process, then reports on the effects on state competency restoration systems of the 2017 United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit case Trueblood v. Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. Part II then provides an historical perspective on the insanity defense, followed by a brief discussion of the 2020 United States Supreme Court case Kahler v. Kansas, then a discussion of promising developments in the use of neuroscientific evidence in criminal cases. Finally, after documenting the problems and shifts in the use of competency restoration, as well as the effective loss of the affirmative insanity defense, this Comment addresses existing gaps in state justice systems and recommends programming and investments states should consider making
Florida’s Stop Woke Act and its Function as a Content-Based Restriction
Full text linkMay 2023, Florida Governor Ron Desantis signed into law Florida Senate Bill 266 (SB 266) concerning changes to funding requirements for Florida State University System institutions.. Under SB 266, university undergraduate courses may not “distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics…or is based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities”.
The bill is popularly known as the “Stop Woke Act” (hereafter “the Act”)—an attempt to curtail the apparent horrors of Critical Race Theory (CRT) discussion. Desantis has been outspoken in his disdain for tenets of CRT. Consistent with Desantis’s mischaracterization, the Florida legislature believes CRT materially distorts history, victimizes Caucasian Americans, and silences what it would call “Western values”. Accordingly, the Florida legislature began a campaign to ban or remove CRT as an approach to education in state-funded universities. Under the Act, Department heads and professors must present their curricula to the institution’s Board of Trustees annually to ensure compliance; professors may lose their positions and schools may lose their funding if classes integrate CRT teaching
Internet Expansion in the San Lucas School District
Full text linkOne of the biggest needs seen during the pandemic throughout California was how heavily internet was needed for students to succeed academically and the fact that many in our community could not afford basic internet. This study showed whether there is a need for high-speed internet in order for students to access online learning tools. Both quantitative and qualitative data in the form of surveys, interviews with key informants, and participation observations were used to gather information. The literature gathered identified the inequity when it came to student’s accessing their online learning tools due to lack of internet access. The goal of the study evaluated the possible effects of internet expansion in the San Lucas School District, and we did identify the need for internet access since many in the community cannot afford the limited high-speed internet available. The study can also be used as a guide in other rural communities as further data to substantiate the need for students and access to high-speed internet in order to succeed academically
Don’t Touch My Hair: How Hair Discrimination Contributes to the Policing of Black and Brown Identities While Upholding White Supremacy
Full text linkIn order to engage in a meaningful conversation of the significance a person’s hair holds, we must begin by understanding the root of hair discrimination. In the fifteenth century, the transatlantic slave trade took place that robbed individuals of their freedom, rich cultures, traditions, and values. With this came the emphasis around European characteristics, such as light skin and straight or wavy hair that took away from the beauty of darker skin and tightly coiled hair textures. Slave masters contributed to the assimilation of Eurocentric beauty standards by ridiculing Black features and imposing a hierarchy as slave masters only privileged those with lighter skin and straight hair. Black hair in particular was viewed as “dirty” and “unkempt,” while white people during this era would degrade the texture of Black hair and describe it to be as “rough as wool.”
The 1770s would go on to birth the term “good hair,” which was associated with white hair and highlighted that Caucasian hair textures were softer, longer, and more “kept” whereas, Black hair textures were the anthesis of this. Later in 2016, this term would surface again reopening a centuries old conversation around hair, when Beyonce so eloquently vocalized in her 2016 album, Lemonade, “You better call Becky with the Good Hair.” Well, who is Becky with the good hair? Becky is a white woman with soft, long, sleek hair that is viewed as more “desirable.” Becky with the good hair contributes to the struggle that many Black women face: the damaging effects of colorism that places Eurocentric features on a pedestal
The Supreme Court Rolls Back the Clock for Juvenile Justice
Full text linkFor decades, the Supreme Court has protected juveniles from harsh punishments, such as mandatory life without parole (LWOP), by acknowledging that children are different and must be sentenced accordingly. The developmental differences in children make it nearly impossible to determine that a child who commits a crime is beyond hope for rehabilitation. Jones v. Mississippi turned back the clock on juvenile justice by holding that sentencers need not find a child is “permanently incorrigible” before sentencing them to life without parole
Effectiveness of Motivational Messages, Information and Reminders on Recycling: Experimental Study in Hammonton, New Jersey
Full text linkAs solid waste generation continues to rise, many communities consider recycling essential to their solid waste management. However, there is a lack of resources for recycling program administrators to determine how to increase recycling participation, capture quality recyclables and increase recycling tonnages. This paper includes a literature review that explores existing research about recycling awareness, motivational messaging, information about what can be recycled, and recycling reminders. It also provides an overview, analysis and findings of an experimental study in Hammonton, New Jersey, conducted by The Recycling Partnership that examined the real-world impact of a pilot program with motivational messaging, recycling information, and reminders. In this quantative analysis, the average recycling route tons were calculated and compared before and after the interventions. Through this analysis, an impact on average recycling route tons was not detected, and as deployed, the interventions did not result in an increase in average recycling route tons. The findings from this research can help recycling program administrators consider how to deploy programs best to increase recycling participation and capture. Further research is needed to determine the best strategies, frameworks and interventions to change resident recycling behaviors to increase recycling tons collected
COMMENT: SB 145: Defending and Applying Discretion to California’s Sex Offender Registry
Full text linkSB 145 equalizes sentencing treatment for members of the LGBTQ community, and seeks to improve the California Sex Offender Registry , by expanding a trial judge’s discretion to impose sex offender registration.
Since 1944, “[a] loophole in the law”. . . force[d] anyone convicted of consensual sex [with a minor], such as gay men or lesbians, to register as a sex offender.” Judges had no choice but to impose sex offender registration in those circumstances.
SB 145 gives trial judges discretion to place a person on the Registry if the offender- a legal adult at the time of the offense- engaged in certain “non-forcible” sexual acts with a minor-fourteen years of age or older and within ten years of age from the adult offender