Legislation Clinic
The Legislation Clinic has expanded
its substantive reach with
the introduction of a federal component.
In recent years, students
have worked principally on local
legislative matters before the D.C.
Council. This past spring, Legislation
Clinic students worked in offices
ranging from Capitol Hill to
the D.C. Council to federal executive
branch agencies. They shared
the various perspectives of legal
practitioners in the public policy
world at rounds sessions
throughout the semester
to gain a broad understanding
of how public
policy is shaped and the
role of lawyers in that
process.
Theresa Kronholm,
’04, researched
the implications of genetic
information and
developed legislation to
prevent discrimination
based on genetic traits—
the Human Rights Genetic Information
Amendment Act — sponsored
by District Councilmember
Jim Graham. In the process,
Theresa wrote a series of memoranda
and analyzed legislation in
31 states!
Kenniah Canady, ’04, worked with
Rep. Sanford Bishop (GA-2nd) and his
staff on a variety of issues including
amendments to the Fair Housing Act to
prevent discrimination based on age; legislation
that would award former President
Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn,
the Gold Medal on behalf of Congress
for their distinguished service to the
nation; and constituent appropriation requests
for the Transportation, Commerce/
Justice, Defense and other appropriations
bills, preparing them for submission to
the relevant Appropriations Subcommittees.
She also researched U.S. E.P.A.
budget justifications and the impact of
the Agency on the 2nd District of Georgia.
Richard Moss, ‘04, did regulatory
and legal analysis work for the U.S. Forest
Service on the Healthy Forests Initiative.
He drafted a bill on beetle infestation
and applied the Regulatory Budgeting
Initiative—a regulatory framework
developed by the Office of Management
and Budget utilizing cost-benefit analysis —
to Forest Service regulations.
Adjunct Prof. Doug Hartnett, an
alumnus and Government Accountability
Project staff attorney who supervised the
Clinic in the spring, is co-teaching the
Legislation Clinic in 2003-04 with Professor
Robert Burgdorf.
Juvenile & Special
Education Law Clinic
In Spring 2003, law students
Dwayne Berry, Philana Handler,
Kris Keegan, Ebele Onwueme,
Tiffani Shannon, James
Snowden, Aubreana Stephenson,
and Jason Tucker tackled issues
of first impression that have arisen
from their caseload. Among these
issues are the following:
Enforcing the rights of a client
to accommodations for severe receptive
and expressive language
disabilities in the face of probation
revocation in criminal court;
Restoring free lunch and
breakfast under the National
School Lunch Program to a low-income
child who is attending a
private, special education school
(rather than his neighborhood
school) as a result of an agreement
with D.C. Public Schools
based upon the inability of the
public school system personnel to
provide to the child a free appropriate
public education in the
neighborhood school;
Exploring whether a young
person incarcerated in the federal
prison system can vindicate his
rights to special education and
related services by filing a preliminary
injunction against the D.
C. Public Schools (in the context
of an expedited hearing in
front of a special master); and
Preparing to argue for the
release of a client from jail to a
residential drug treatment program,
facilitating the release by
arranging – as a manifestation of
“compensatory education” for
previous failures by school system
personnel to serve this now
twenty-five-year-old client – for
special education and related services
within the drug treatment
placement.
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