2019 has been a busy year for CIR. Whether defending free speech in a welfare office in New York or challenging a racial voting law in Guam, CIR has been fighting for individual rights wherever the Constitution reaches.
You can read about CIR’s work in our most recent Docket Report.
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2019 marks CIR’s thirtieth year.
In 1989, Michael Greve and Michael McDonald founded the Center for Individual Rights, a new kind of public interest firm that would fight back against the liberal drift in constitutional law. CIR would bring original cases that took dead aim at threats to individual liberty. It was a big gamble, but it paid off in big ways. For three decades, CIR has been bringing cases that ...
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On July 11, CIR filed a motion for partial summary judgment on behalf of New York civil servant Salvatore Davi. After months of discovery, including depositions of numerous New York officials and review of thousands of documents, the record demonstrates that Davi was engaged in a private, after-hours discussion on Facebook in which he never mentioned his job and which concerned a significant issue of public policy: the appropriate goal ...
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In a surprising turn of events, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan has granted Guam an extension to appeal the Ninth Circuit decision, invalidating Guam’s plebiscite law as racially discriminatory. Guam’s attorney Michael Phillips will now have until December 26 to file a petition.
On November 6, Guam’s governor, Lou Leon Guerrero, announced that the application for an extension was denied. According to Phillips, Guam submitted its application both by e-mail and ...
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[Update: Petition Denied 10-7-19]
On May 16, 2019 CIR filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the US Supreme Court asking it to review a decision of the Iowa Supreme Court holding a landlord liable for housing discrimination for truthfully informing a tenant the reason for her lawful eviction.
Teresa Seeberger rented rooms in a house she owned. When Seeberger learned that her tenant’s fifteen-year-old daughter had become pregnant, she told ...
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