MacArthur Justice Center

We are excited to introduce the 2024 Summer Law Interns! Meet the brilliant legal minds joining our Washington, D.C. Office supporting the Supreme Court & Appellate Program for the next few months. Learn why they are excited to intern with MJC.    Andrew E. is a J.D. candidate at the University of Michigan Law School. Before coming to law school, Andrew received his B.A. from Vassar College and his MPhil from the University of Cambridge. Andrew has worked with the Immigrant Worker Project as a paralegal and social advocate and the Center for Policing Equity as a public policy specialist. He plans to use his legal education to continue doing civil rights appellate work.    Grace Vedock is a rising 3L at the University of Michigan Law School. She has worked for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and the ACLU of Kansas. During her 2L year, Grace started a pro bono project to help minors obtain judicial bypass and access abortion care. She is a Book Review Editor for the Michigan Law Review, and her recently published Note was awarded the Allan Lewis Kauffman Memorial Award for the best student contribution to the Law Review for the 2023–24 school year.     Marian Gardner is a rising 3L at Harvard Law School, where she is a member of Harvard Defenders, the only legal service organization in Massachusetts that represents low-income defendants for free in criminal show-cause hearings. This past year, she was the co-Director of the organization's criminal record sealing program. Prior to law school, Marian was a paralegal in the Civil Justice Practice at Brooklyn Defender Services for three years.    Nick Wagner graduated from the Ohio State University in 2021 before starting law school. He attends NYU Law, where he is an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow and has worked with the Prison Teaching Project, the Reproductive Justice Clinic, and the Jailhouse Lawyers Initiative.     Nicole Happ is a rising 3L at American University's Washington College of Law. Before law school, she worked as a community organizer, social worker, and youth director. Nicole is interested in civil rights, police accountability, prisoners' rights, poverty law, and constitutional law. 

We are eager to introduce the 2024 Summer Law Interns! Meet the brilliant legal minds joining our Louisiana Office for the next few months and learn why they are excited to intern with MJC.    Amelia Steinbach is a rising 2L at Harvard from Durham, NC. She graduated from Duke in 2021 with a degree in Political Science and Gender Studies. She then took two gap years before starting at HLS, during which she received a Master's in Gender, Politics, and International Relations from University College Dublin and worked as a Legislative Fellow on Capitol Hill.    Carter Farnsworth earned his undergraduate degree from Boston University, and just finished his first year at the University of Virginia School of Law. Carter is interested in prisoners' rights work, capital defense, public defense, and restorative justice.    Rita W. Wang is a rising 2L and Derrick Bell Scholar at NYU Law who wants to become a civil rights impact litigator in the South. Before law school, they were the inaugural intake associate at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. They graduated with a B.A. with distinction from Yale College as a double major in Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies and Philosophy, where they were the first woman of color to serve as Speaker of the Yale Political Union. 

We at MJC are thrilled to introduce the 2024 Summer Law Interns! Meet the brilliant legal minds joining our Illinois Office for the next few months and learn why they are excited to intern with MJC. Meera Santhanam is a rising 2L at Harvard Law School interested in the intersection of criminal justice and civil rights. As an aspiring public defender and civil rights lawyer, she hopes to pursue both direct services and impact litigation to help dismantle the racial and economic inequalities in the U.S. criminal legal system. Prior to law school, Meera worked as a paralegal in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice helping prosecute police misconduct, and has previously interned at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia and the Exoneration Project. Vikekae Kim is a proud Chicagoan who grew up on the northwest side and attended Chicago Public Schools. She went to Harvard College and is now a rising 2L at Yale Law School. She's passionate about civil rights issues focused on police violence and surveillance. After graduating law school, she plans to be back in Chicago, lawyering and organizing alongside movements centered on decarceration and building alternative systems for community safety.    Yurou Li is a rising senior at the University of Chicago studying Law, Letters, and Society and Data Science. Her focus areas include parole reformation, prisoner civil rights, and data privacy-related issues. This is her second summer at MJC with the National Parole Transformation Project team! 

The Civil Rights Act was signed into law 60 years ago today. This monumental legislation laid the groundwork for accountability and equality under the law for all people. Today, we're commemorating this watershed moment for the Civil Rights movement. The MacArthur Justice Center relies on the Civil Rights Act to advocate for our clients unjustly harmed by the criminal legal system and fight for a system free of discrimination. We know there is still work to do to ensure that everyone, regardless of race and identity, is treated with dignity and respect under the law. We'll keep fighting every day to achieve these ends.

One of the central founding principles of our Nation is that no one is above the law––including the President of the United States. The MacArthur Justice Center believes this too, which is why we fight to hold people with power in the criminal legal system accountable for their actions. Read our full statement on the latest Supreme Court decisions here: https://lnkd.in/ek2_wsPD

In a concerning and erroneous ruling, the Supreme Court held in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson that the Eighth Amendment allows a city to criminally punish people for sleeping in public spaces when no alternative shelter is available. While this is a disappointing decision, Justice Sotomayor explains that there are still other legal tools available to challenge these laws. The MacArthur Justice Center stands in solidarity with those fighting to ensure everyone has a safe place to live. Read our full statement on the latest Supreme Court decisions here: https://lnkd.in/ek2_wsPD

In the closing weeks of the Supreme Court term, Justice Jackson voted against criminal defendants in Diaz v. U.S. and Erlinger v. U.S., which many call "unexpected" based on her background as a public defender—however, Devi Rao, D.C. Director of the MacArthur Justice Center reminds us that Jackson is bringing her entire background and career experiences to bear on how she thinks about a particular case, including her time as a federal judge and member of the Sentencing Commission. "It makes sense that given all these experiences, she's attentive to administrability and how these rules play out on the ground. Her writings in Diaz and Erlinger both bear that out." — Devi Rao, MJC. Read more in Bloomberg Law https://lnkd.in/euUdKArN

FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY: The MacArthur Justice Center invites rising third-year law students and recent graduates to apply for sponsorship for externally funded legal fellowships in our Illinois, Missouri, and Washington, D.C. offices. The MJC Legal Fellowship is designed to facilitate learning for recent law school graduates and to support the work of our regional offices. Fellows will conduct their work under close supervision and direction of the Vice President and Legal Director, an Office Director, Senior Counsel/Supreme Court and Appellate Counsel, or Attorney. We're accepting applications through July 7, 2024. Apply today! https://lnkd.in/expP4mdZ

In light of #MensMentalHealthAwarenessMonth, we must not overlook the mental health needs of men in prison—specifically those enduring solitary confinement. These individuals endure severe and lasting psychological and physiological consequences. Nearly 50% of all prison suicides are among individuals held in isolation. At the MacArthur Justice Center, we advocate for our clients who endure solitary confinement and fight to end the practice. Learn more about our work here: https://lnkd.in/geTP29Af

The number of Illinois schools referring students to the police for discipline is on the rise. MacArthur Justice Center's Zoe Li says this ticketing practice "is a debilitating symptom of a larger problem: the transformation of our classrooms into carceral spaces." Learn more about the harmful and discriminatory practice of school ticketing and how MJC is fighting it.