Human and Civil Rights

The newsletter of the ISBA’s Human and Civil Rights Section

ISBA Members, please login to join this section

2008 Articles

Advocates regroup in aftermath of Supreme Court denial of review in case that leaves families defenseless and without due process By Diane L. Redleaf November 2008 It seems like Due Process 101: the State cannot deprive an individual of liberty without any basis and without providing a process by which the deprivation can be challenged.
Book review By Kathryn E. Eisenhart April 2008 Jeffrey Toobin is a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1993 and is a senior legal analyst for CNN.
Civil unions in Illinois – House Bill 1826 and Senate Bill 2436 By Jennifer A. Shaw April 2008 Two of the most important pending items of legislation affecting the human and civil rights of Illinois citizens are House Bill 1826 and Senate Bill 2436.
Criminal justice reform By Julie Hamos January 2008 Congratulations to you, Judge Eugene Pincham, for receiving the Elmer Gertz Lawyer award for your lifetime of public service fighting for the underserved and marginalized.
Freedom for the thought we hate: A Biography of the First Amendment by Anthony Lewis By Kathryn E. Eisenhart June 2008 It won’t take long to read this book. But I finished the book with a sense of the sweep and changes of freedom of expression and freedom of the press that is often lacking in the tomes often published about the topic.
From the Chair By Kenneth Dobbs November 2008 Obscenity, child murderers, assassins, fascists, defamation, disabled people, constitutional democracy, human rights and law school classrooms were Elmer Gertz’s milieu.
From the Chair By Kenneth Dobbs September 2008 Under the leadership of Steve Helle, our relatively small section council stands as an example of what committed and hardworking Illinois lawyers achieve when given an opportunity.
From the Chair By Steven Helle June 2008 It’s been a good run, but it is time for this chair to fade away and welcome the next generation of leadership for the Human Rights Section Council.
From the Chair By Steven Helle April 2008 A message from Section Chair Steven Helle.
From the Chair By Steven Helle January 2008 A colleague told me recently of how she had been doing research into the Federal Communications Commission and expected her job to be easy because the FCC had always issued numerous reports on the industry and communications policy.
Gertz Award winner guided by voices By Sean O’Brien November 2008 Doug Cassel, winner of the 2008 Elmer Gertz Award, remembers the day in 1964 when he decided to become a lawyer.
Guantánamo in the Supreme Court … Again By Marc Falkoff April 2008 Boumediene v. Bush is the latest of the Guantánamo detainee cases to make it to our nation’s highest court, and it will be the third time that the Justices take a metaphorical tour of Guantánamo in order to sort out some fundamental issues concerning our country’s dedication to the rule of law in the age of terror. 
Illinois joins the ranks of the anti-SLAPP states By Steven Helle June 2008 With the passage of a new law last year, the term SLAPP has entered the Illinois legal vocabulary.
John Yoo and the Problem of Constitutional Evil By Mark Graber June 2008 Having just excerpted the Yoo memo for Gillman, Graber, and Whittington, American Constitutionalism (forthcoming, 2010), let me suggest that the claims are constitutionally plausible or as plausible as most of what I read when I read legal materials.
A Law Day Program on the crisis in Darfur By Scott W. Gertz April 2008 The images have been horrific. The United States government has labeled the atrocities committed by the Sudanese government genocide.
Pre-conviction DNA gathering By Thomas A. Bruno June 2008 The FBI has proposed taking tissue samples of all persons arrested by the FBI for submission to the FBI’s DNA database.
R. Eugene Pincham receives Section’s Elmer Gertz Award By Richard L. Hutchison January 2008 On December 11, 2007, the ISBA honored R. Eugene Pincham with the annual Elmer Gertz Award.
Relief is on the horizon for public service attorneys burdened by law school debt By Colleen Morgan November 2008 With the average law school graduate carrying a staggering amount of student loan debt, and with starting salaries in public interest areas of the law lagging well below those in the private sector, student loan debt relief has become an attractive way for prosecutors, public defenders, and legal aid offices to recruit new attorneys and retain experienced ones.
Report of status of selected civil liberties issues in Russia By Natalia Evdokimova September 2008 Chapter II of the Constitution of the Russian Federation adopted in 1993 grants the rights and liberties of the citizens of Russia.
Subtle changes to House Bill 1826 may result in a more perfect civil union By Jennifer A. Shaw September 2008 On February 23, 2007, Representative Greg Harris introduced House Bill 1826 – The Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act.
Thank Yoo and Judge (Mostly Getting a Free Pass) Bybee By Brian Tamanaha June 2008 Thank them for what? For effectively bringing home three essential lessons about the rule of law:
A true rightward turn? The current U.S. Supreme Court term and the 2008 elections By Tom Goldstein January 2008 Following the completion of the 2006 Term, liberal advocacy groups raised alarm about conservative rulings from the Supreme Court.