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October 30, 2015
The Clinic is co-counseling with the Texas Fair Defense Project (TFDJ) and Susman Godfrey LLP to represent Austin-area residents who face jail time for petty misdemeanors, solely because they lack the ability to pay. We represent two plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit challenging the Austin Municipal Court’s policies and practices of failing to determine […] -
October 27, 2015
Lawsuit Challenges Austin’s Debt-Collection Practices That Punish, Jail Low-Income Residents
AUSTIN, TX (Oct. 27, 2015) – The Texas Fair Defense Project, the Civil Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law and the law firm of Susman Godfrey LLP filed suit today against the city of Austin for unconstitutionally jailing low-income central Texans. The complaint, Gonzales et al. v. City of Austin, filed […] -
October 26, 2015
The Clinic is co-counseling with the ACLU of Texas, to represent a U.S. citizen who was subjected to excessive force by an officer of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) during a search of her vehicle in Brownsville. The Bivens lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Brownsville, alleges that the CBP official violated her […] -
October 21, 2015
The Clinic is partnering with the Texas Jails Project to investigate and report on legislative and policy measures that can be taken to prevent deaths of inmates in Texas county jails. It is estimated that one-fifth to one-third of jail inmates, who are 60% pretrial detainees, cope with mental illness or mental health disorders. Our […] -
October 16, 2015
The Clinic is co-counseling with Javier Maldonado, P.C., to represent a Round Rock resident who was subject to a violent take-down and repeated hits by a TASER (electronic stun gun) during a police investigation of a neighborhood disturbance. After the man complained to the police about his treatment, the police re-opened his closed case and […] -
October 11, 2015
Along with Texas Appleseed, the Clinic is investigating the school discipline policies and practices of Austin-area school districts, to determine how and why districts unfairly cast out public school students and deny them meaningful instructional time and opportunities to graduate and for higher education. We are investigating policies on school suspension, explusion, and alternative education […] -
July 2, 2015
From May 2014 to July 2015, the Clinic were co-counsel, along with attorneys at the Texas Civil Rights Project and the Edwards Law firm, to represent Texas prisoners at the Wallace Pack Unit in class-action litigation challenging their exposure to extreme heat and humidity in inmate housing during the summer months. The plaintiffs are suing […] -
June 2, 2015
From January to July 2015, the Clinic partnered with the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, as well as other counsel, to represent a class of plaintiffs in nationwide class-action litigation regarding the rights of children in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security. Following DHS’s expanded practice of detaining immigrant families of […] -
June 2, 2015
In 2014-2015, the Clinic represented, along with local immigration attorneys, three different women who were detained along with their children in federal immigration detention facilities. In each case, the Clinic brought Constitutional Due Process and statutory claims challenging the continued detention of the mothers and their children for several weeks or months. These families were […] -
May 2, 2015
Ending Immigrant Family Detention: Non-Litigation Advocacy 2015
From August 2014 to May 2015, the Clinic partnered with grassroots and community-based organizations and immigration advocates to call for the end of the Department of Homeland Security’s new practice of detaining immigrant families of women and children. Clinic students drafted advocacy materials, attended hearings, and conducted research on numerous potential legal claims. The Clinic […]
