Monday, September 22, 2014

3 Human Rights Lawyers Awarded MacArthur Fellowships

The MacArthur Fellows were announced this past week.  Three lawyers known to us for their human rights work were among the awardees.

The law school clinic world is abuzz with the news that one of their own was among those honored.  Professor Sarah Deer of William Mitchell College of Law is director of the Indian Law Clinic at the school.  A citizen of the Muscogee Nation, Prof. Deer has spent her career advocating for Native survivors of domestic and sexual violence.  Prof. Deer’s scholarship and advocacy was instrumental in the passage of  The Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 and the 2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.  The latter restored to tribal nations jurisdiction to prosecute perpetrators who commit crimes of violence against women or who violate a protection order on tribal land. Prof. Deer’s scholarship addresses a range of issues vital to ending violence against women and tribal law.

Director of the Civil Rights Project of the Gay and Lesbian Defenders (GLAD) Mary Bonauto has led the struggle for marriage equality for a large part of her career.   She successfully argued the seminal state marriage equality, Goodrich v. Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the case on which the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decided that the right to marry is a civil rights issue and validated same sex marriage.  Attorney Bonauto’s strategy of addressing marriage equality one state at the time proved successful as we watch one state after another authorize marriage equality.  Her leadership led to the US Supreme Court’s invalidating the Defense of Marriage Act.  Read more about Attorney Bonauto here.

Jonathan Rapping transformed the Southern Public Defender Training Center into Gideon’s Promise.  Rapping’s mission is to transform public defender practice.  Recognizing that defenders are overburdened, Rapping developed a training approach to remedy some of the barriers faced by public defenders. The MacArthur Foundation noted: “Gideon’s Promise teaches public defenders to work more effectively within the judicial system by providing coaching, training, and professional development as well as a supportive network of peers and mentors from around the country.”  The training model is widely employed now, primarily across the South. The Gideon’s Promise model will be incorporated into the Maryland state-wide public defender program.  For more information read here.  Mr. Rapping is an associate professor with Atlanta's John Marshall Law School and is the author of numerous articles on various aspects of the criminal justice system.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/human_rights/2014/09/3-human-rights-lawyers-awarded-macarthur-fellowships.html

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