Court Cases
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children v. Bowen
This is case is class action Equal Protection challenge to California’s disenfranchisement law, which bars persons with felony convictions from voting while they are in prison and on parole.
– 12/09/08
Comments to FCC Regarding Prison Phone Rates
The Brennan Center for Justice has submitted a series of comments on a petition asking the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") to issue a rule dealing with prison phone rates. The Comments urge the FCC to take into account the harms caused by the high costs of phone calls for prisoners, their families, court-appointed attorneys, and social services providers.
– 12/04/08
Duke v. Leake
The Brennan Center is intervening to help defend the nation’s first voluntary full public financing program for judicial elections.
– 11/05/08
Kiyemba v. Obama
The Center and three other organizations submitted an amicus brief on October 31, 2008, urging the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the D.C. District Court’s decision to release 17 Uighurs currently detained unlawfully at Guantánamo Bay into the U.S.
– 10/31/08
Arar v. Ashcroft
The Brennan Center filed an amicus brief in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of a group of distinguished federal judges in support of Maher Arar, a Canadian who was subject to extraordinary rendition to Syria.
– 10/27/08
In Re NSA Telecommunications Records Litiagation
The Center submitted an amicus on October 24, 2008, in support of the plaintiffs’ opposition to the government’s motion to dismiss..
– 10/24/08
Van Hollen v. Government Accountability Board
Wisconsin AG, J.B. Van Hollen, claims the state’s Government Accountability Board(GAB) is incompliant with HAVA by not retroactively running database matches and purging voters from registration rolls.
– 10/23/08
Florida NAACP v. Browning
A lawsuit filled by the Brennan Center and other voting rights advocates challenging Florida’s requirement that the driver’s license or Social Security number on a registration form be verified before a voter can be registered to vote.
– 10/23/08
Republican Party of Ohio v. Secretary Brunner
The Ohio Republican Party sued Ohio’s Secretary of State alleging that various policies adopted by the Secretary violated federal and state law. Among the claims was that Ohio was not in compliance with provisions of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 ("HAVA").
– 10/13/08
Green Party of Connecticut v. Jeffrey Garfield
In 2005, the Connecticut General Assembly became the first state legislature in the nation to pass a full public financing law that applies to its own campaigns. The Brennan Center is helping to defend this system and Connecticut’s ban on campaign contributions from lobbyists and state contractors.
– Ongoing