Professor: Jenny-Brooke Condon
Clinical Teaching Fellow: Rachel Lopez (Fall 2011 & Spring 2012)
Offered: Fall & Spring semesters
Credits: 5
INTRODUCTION
The Equal Justice Clinic handles a variety of cases addressing civil and human rights with a primary focus on ensuring disadvantaged groups equal access to justice. Through impact litigation and advocacy, the clinic typically addresses issues involving immigrants’ rights, prisoners’ rights, and ethnic and gender-based discrimination. Current cases include a class action lawsuit challenging on equal protection grounds New Jersey’s denial of State-funded Medicaid to lawful permanent residents on the basis of their alienage; co-counseling in a death-penalty case in Alabama on behalf of an indigent client seeking post-conviction relief; prisoners’ rights litigation challenging unconstitutional conditions of confinement at the Passaic County Jail; and a project examining the impact of expansive, new FBI surveillance powers on innocent individuals and communities, particularly Muslims targeted by the FBI without suspicion of wrong doing.
THE SEMINAR
The clinical experience also includes a one-credit seminar that meets once a week for two hours and covers the substantive areas of law involved in the cases the clinic is handling.
CRITERIA FOR ADMISSION
In addition to the general clinic pre-requisites, consideration will also be given to the student's prior experience, interest in the subject area and a demonstrated commitment to public interest law.