An amicus curiae is an individual or organization that is not a party to a legal case, but that is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. Whether an amicus brief will be considered is typically under the court's discretion. The phrase is legal Latin and the origin of the term has been dated to 1605–1615. The scope of amici curiae is generally found in the cases where broad public interests are involved and concerns regarding civil rights are in question.
Ralph G. Neas is an American civil rights activist and executive. He is best known for directing a series of national campaigns to strengthen and protect civil rights laws during the Reagan and Bush presidencies. He is also known for chairing the national coalition that helped defeat the U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is an American civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City.
The Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law is located on the campus of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in Indianapolis, Indiana, a collaborative urban campus of Indiana University and Purdue University owned and operated by IU. In the summer of 2001, the school moved to its new building, Lawrence W. Inlow Hall. IU McKinney is one of two law schools operated by Indiana University, the other being the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington. Although both law schools are part of Indiana University, each law school is wholly independent of the other. According to IU McKinney's 2019 ABA-required disclosures, 59% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, J.D.-required employment within ten months after graduation.
Geoffrey Fieger is an American attorney based in Southfield, Michigan. Fieger is the founder of the law firm Fieger Law, and is an occasional legal commentator for NBC and MSNBC. His practice focuses on personal injury, civil rights litigation and medical malpractice cases.
In law, a ward is a minor or incapacitated adult placed under the protection of a legal guardian or government entity, such as a court. Such a person may be referenced as a "ward of the court".
The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University is a law school located in Hempstead, New York, on Long Island, affiliated with Hofstra University. Founded in 1970 and accredited by the ABA in 1971, the school offers a JD, a joint JD/MBA degree, and LL.M degrees in American law and family law. It also offers online LL.M and MA degrees in Health Law & Policy, an online LL.M in American Law, and an online MA in American Legal Studies. The Law School is on the southern portion of the 244-acre (0.99 km2) Hofstra University campus. The school was renamed to the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University in September 2011.
The Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law is the law school of Northwestern University, a private research university. The law school is located on the university's Chicago campus. Northwestern Law is considered part of the T14, an unofficial designation in the legal community as the best 14 law schools in the United States.
Child protective services (CPS) is the name of an agency in many U.S. states responsible for providing child protection, which includes responding to reports of child abuse or neglect. Some states use other names, often attempting to reflect more family-centered practices, such as department of children and family services (DCFS). CPS is also sometimes known by the name of department of social services, though these terms more often have a broader meaning.
Sylvia Pressler was an American judge who served in a number of positions within the New Jersey judicial system. She is best known for deciding a landmark 1973 case which allowed girls to compete in Little League baseball in New Jersey, and which resulted in the organization changing its charter to allow girls to play in its league nationally. Pressler served as the Chief Judge of the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court for five years. Prior to this she was the Presiding Judge for 15 years. She officially retired from the bench in 2004. A graduate of Rutgers School of Law–Newark at a time when the legal profession was still dominated by men, Judge Pressler was the second woman to sit on the appellate division in New Jersey, and was one of the first women to clerk for an appellate division judge.
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law is a liberal or progressive nonprofit law and public policy institute. The organization is named after Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. The Brennan Center advocates for public policy positions including raising the minimum wage, opposing voter ID laws, and calling for public funding of elections. The organization opposed the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, which held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent political expenditures by nonprofits.
Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, formerly Texas Rural Legal Aid (TRLA), is a nonprofit agency that specializes in providing free civil legal services to the poor in a 68-county service area. It also operates a migrant farmworker legal assistance program in six southern states and a public defender program in southern rural counties of Texas. Established in 1970, TRLA is the largest legal aid provider in Texas and the second largest in the United States.
Polygamy is the practice of having more than one spouse at the same time. Specifically, polygyny is the practice of one man taking more than one wife while polyandry is the practice of one woman taking more than one husband. Polygamy is a common marriage pattern in some parts of the world. In North America, polygamy has not been a culturally normative or legally recognized institution since the continent's colonization by Europeans.
Kim Anita McLane Wardlaw is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 1998. She is the first Hispanic American woman to be appointed to a federal appeals court. Wardlaw was considered as a possible candidate to be nominated by Barack Obama to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Nimfa Cuesta Vilches was a Senior Deputy Court Administrator (DCA) at the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA), Supreme Court of the Philippines. She was a regional trial court judge in Manila until her appointment as Assistant Court Administrator in 2006 and as DCA in 2008. She was a family law expert in the Philippines and in the international legal community.
Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward or a non-minor, typically aged 18-21, who volunteers for placement, is placed in a relative placement, a non-related extended family (NREFM) placement, a community family home, an institution, a group home (residential child care community, residential treatment center, etc. Relative, NREFM, and community caregivers certified by the state are typically referred to as "foster parents," "kin caregivers," "resource parents," or other local terms. The placement of the child is usually arranged through state or county social services. The institution, group home, or caregiver is reimbursed for the expenses related to caring for the child. The state via the family court and child protection agency stand in loco parentis to the minor, making all legal decisions, while the caregiver is responsible for the day-to-day care of the minor. Even while their child is in Care, typically birth parents retain Education and Medical rights and the right to contact with their child unless parental rights are terminated by the Court.
Women in law describes the role played by women in the legal profession and related occupations, which includes lawyers, paralegals, prosecutors, judges, legal scholars, law professors and law school deans.
Bryan Williams is a Canadian lawyer and retired judge from Vancouver, British Columbia. He was a puisne justice on the British Columbia Court of Appeal and also Chief Justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court. In addition to an extensive litigation practice, he was heavily involved in a number of organizations relating to the practice of law and the administration of justice, including a term as national president of the Canadian Bar Association.
Joseph Cammarata is an American attorney mainly known for handling the high-profile case against President Bill Clinton, in which he represented Paula Jones in a sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton. Cammarata also represented seven women who alleged they were sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby in a defamation lawsuit.
Jonathan T. Skrmetti is an American attorney and public official. He currently serves as the 28th Attorney General and Reporter for the state of Tennessee.
