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Integrating Human Rights Into State and Federal Court Litigation
No full textHuman rights have never been more important in the United States as they are today. After more than 10 years of dormancy, the seminal work that guides public interest attorneys in incorporating human rights work has been finally updated. The Human Rights in the U.S. Handbook for Public Interest Attorneys is a handbook that provides practical direction to public interest attorneys, including clinical law teachers, legal aid attorneys, public defenders, and others, on how to use human rights in their everyday work. The Handbook invaluably advises attorneys on best practices for using human rights arguments before U.S. state and federal courts and before policymakers.
Adjacent to the Handbook, this Article argues that public interest attorneys, especially those engaged in law teaching, should consider using the Handbook in their law practice and in class. Public interest attorneys can use the Handbook to craft human rights arguments to be used in practice locally and law faculty can use the Handbook to expose law students to the numerous human rights tools available for clinic cases and projects, but also to help make room for students developing professional identities to contemplate what it means to protect and expand rights for the most vulnerable in the United States for the long term
ArchCity Defenders: Municipal Courts White Paper
No full textArchCity Defenders represents St. Louis’ indigent on a pro bono basis in criminal and civil legal matters while working closely with social service providers to connect clients with services. Our primary goal is to remove the legal barriers preventing our clients from accessing the housing, job training, and treatment they need to get on with their live
Human Rights in the U.S.: Handbook for Public Interest Attorneys (2026 Version)
No full textLegal services attorneys, public defenders, law clinics, and other public interest law practitioners, fight every day to secure basic rights for the most vulnerable persons in the U.S.—among them, people living in poverty, racial minorities, children, the elderly, and immigrants. Yet, U.S. law more often than not falls short of providing a “floor” of minimum protections for these marginalized individuals. More expansive guarantees are found under international human rights law, and some advocates in the U.S. successfully incorporate human rights norms, language and strategies into their domestic work to help advocate for increased protections.
This Handbook was designed for attorneys looking to integrate the human rights framework into their daily work in the U.S. The Handbook was first designed for legal services attorneys at Maryland Legal Aid and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and was first published in 2013. A full version of the original Handbook is available here. The Handbook has since been updated and expanded to provide human rights guidance to public interest attorneys across the United States.
This Handbook is just a starting place. Moreover, it is a working document. We hope that you will add resources, useful cases, success stories, and sample pleadings. We also hope to continue to add additional legal issue areas to the Handbook, as human rights arguments are made and successes are achieved, and to share strategies and arguments that resonate with judges and policymakers across the U.S. Please visit our Google Form: https://forms.gle/afsewUUPu878ebM6A to suggest edits and additions for this Handbook
2026--Opening Remarks and Keynote
No full textThe scaling back of federal administrative agencies currently being undertaken by the Trump administration carries broad implications for the practice, administration and enforcement of labor and employment law.
At the most fundamental level, the reality of 200,000 fewer federal employees creates a strong likelihood of much less frequent enforcement of federal labor and employment laws. And this drop-off in federal personnel comes amid judicial reconsideration of the constitutionality of the federal statutes and administrative agencies that animate the federal structure.
It is hard not to imagine that all of this rollback will produce federal vacuums. And because nature abhors vacuums these spaces are likely to be filled. Perhaps with state law. Perhaps with new amalgams of federal and state law that will replace the surprising and often underappreciated amalgams that have existed up to now.https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj_wefel_symposia/1003/thumbnail.jp
The Weight of Stigma
Full text linkMany health care providers, both implicitly and explicitly, perpetuate stigma in their treatment of patients classified as obese. While medical professionals understand that a one-size-fits-all approach to treatment is ineffective, patients classified as obese are frequently offered limited treatment options that fail to account for their unique needs. Access to a range of effective treatment options has historically been limited, but new GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines like Wegovy (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide), have shown incredible promise in addressing the obesity crisis. Unfortunately, these transformative drugs are costly, in high demand, and not widely covered by insurance, rendering them inaccessible for many Americans.
This Article reviews the history of weight loss medications, emphasizing how past problems have fueled skepticism toward obesity treatment while reinforcing societal stigma against overweight individuals. Medical understanding of obesity has evolved from an issue of personal responsibility to a recognized disease, yet stigma persists. GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines have the potential to reduce structural barriers, including stigma, that deter individuals classified as obese from seeking necessary medical care. However, their effectiveness in addressing these barriers depends on expanding access. GLP-1 receptor agonists will not be universally effective, so enhanced provider education on comprehensive obesity management remains paramount. Effective medicines with strong safety profiles are an important first step, but to improve outcomes and reduce obesity stigma, physicians must adopt individualized, multi-faceted treatment plans for patients classified as obese
It’s Not Just Ferguson: Missouri Supreme Court Should Consolidate the Municipal Court System
No full textThe municipal court system fans the flames of racial tension, oppression, and disenfranchisement by allowing municipalities to appropriate the court to act as government debt-collection agencies and implicitly charging the courts with ensuring the municipalities’ fine-generated revenues are sufficient to maintain inefficient governmental operations.1 ArchCity Defenders, August 2014
The Municipal Court does not act as a neutral arbiter of the law or a check on unlawful police conduct. Instead, the court primarily uses its judicial authority as the means to compel the payment of fines and fees that advance the city’s financial interests.2 The harms of Ferguson’s police and court practices are borne disproportionately by African-Americans, and there is evidence that this is due in part to intentional discrimination based on race.3 Department of Justice, March 2015
Extraordinary action is warranted in Ferguson. To help restore public trust and confidence in the Ferguson municipal court division, the Supreme Court of Missouri today transferred Judge Roy L Richter of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, to the St. Louis County circuit court, where he will be assigned to hear all of Ferguson’s pending and future municipal division cases.4 ---Missouri Supreme Court March, 2015
The Missouri Supreme Court’s unprecedented decision to take control of Ferguson’s Municipal Court was based primarily on issues raised during sustained protest following the killing of Mike Brown and reports published by ArchCity Defenders and the Department of Justice. These reports highlighted racial disparity in traffic stops, excessive revenue generation, and excessive warrants and arrests and confirmed the lived experiences of poor and Black people in St. Louis: there is a racially discriminatory and profit-driven approach to law enforcement made possible only by the collaborative efforts of local government, police, and courts
What Went Wrong? Identifying the Historical Roots of Racial Disparities Among Older Adults in Nursing Facilities
Full text linkIn early 2020, as the nation was just becoming familiar with COVID-19, over a million nursing facility residents were already experiencing crisis-level disasters. Extreme lockdowns, increased hospitalizations, and high mortality rates plagued nursing facilities earlier and far worse than the rest of the population. Data gradually showed that facilities with higher numbers of residents of color were facing particularly dire outcomes.
Although the severity of COVID-19 was surprising, the pandemic highlighted existing and long-standing problems with the country’s long-term care facilities. Many of the problems that led to the horrible disparities during COVID-19 are rooted in a wholly insufficient long-term care system that fails to provide quality, equitable, and dignified care to the increasing number of older adults needing such care.
This article will show how the largest public insurance programs – Medicare and Medicaid- were designed without consideration for meaningful and equitable long-term care coverage. The limitations in the Medicare and Medicaid statutes furthered many of the racial disparities experienced among older adults of color when trying to access long-term care either in the community or in facilities. Lastly, this article will provide equity-centered solutions focused on improving both the quality of nursing facilities and the overall long-term care infrastructure
Towards the Abolition of the Immigration Detention of Children in the United States
Full text linkFor over a decade, international human rights mechanisms have been calling for the prohibition of the detention of children based solely on immigration status. Human rights experts agree that the detention of children for immigration purposes is never in the best interests of the child, it leads to long-term harm, and it is a clear human rights violation. Until recently, the United States has detained hundreds of thousands of migrant children in cages each year and we have still not outlawed the inhumane practice. This article argues that engaging with international human rights mechanisms on this topic, including during the upcoming review of the United States by the U.N. Human Rights Committee in October 2023, is a small and relatively low stakes step to help forge a path towards the abolition of the immigration detention of children in the United States