Amicus Briefs
If you are being watched, leave now!
Through its litigation initiatives, Legal Momentum has made historic and enduring contributions to the rights and opportunities available to women. This is often accomplished through participation in cases as amicus curiae ("friend of the court"). Amici are groups or individuals who are not parties to the case but have particular expertise in the issues at its heart. They bring their expertise to the court in the form of an amicus brief to inform the court’s deliberations. Each year Legal Momentum writes and joins numerous amicus briefs in cases dealing with issues central to our mission.
-
Fairness in the Courts | Violence Against Women and GirlsChild AbuseAuthored Amicus Brief: Concerning the improper sentencing of a teacher who raped an underage student in Montana based on myths about sexual violence.
-
Fairness in the CourtsPublic Benefits and Poverty | Racial JusticeAuthored Amicus Brief: Determined whether the Fair Housing Act (FHA) authorizes “disparate impact” challenges to policies that do not explicitly discriminate on the ground of race or sex, but which have an unjustified disproportionate racial or gender impact.
-
Violence Against Women and GirlsAuthored Amicus Brief: Supreme Court case concerning whether a gun trafficker who abused the mother of his child should be able to legally buy guns
-
Fairness in the CourtsAuthored Amicus Brief: This brief is in support of relief for petitioner based on prosecutorial misconduct due to prosecutor’s focus during trial on petitioner's sexual involvements with men other than her husband.
-
Fairness in the CourtsPublic Benefits and Poverty | LGBTQ+ RightsJoined Amicus Brief: When denying veterans' benefits to a service member with a same-sex spouse, should such classifications should be treated with heightened scrutiny.
-
Fairness in the CourtsLGBTQ+ Rights | International Human RightsAuthored Amicus Brief: Concerning the Inter-American Court (IACHR) overturning the Chilean Supreme Court’s decision to deny Judge Karen Atala custody of her children because of her sexual orientation.
-
Violence Against Women and GirlsJoined Amicus Brief: Amicus brief in support of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s appeal of a decision of the Superior Court Panel vacating the sexual assault conviction of three defendants.
-
Equal Educational OpportunitiesRacial JusticeJoined Amicus Brief: Concerned challenging UT Austin's admission plan. The amicus brief was for respondent UT Austin, arguing for the Court to uphold UT Austin’s admission plan and prior Court opinions holding the educational benefits of diversity are a compelling interest permitting colleges and universities to use in narrowly-tailored individualized review of applicants.
-
Fairness in the Courts | Workplace Equality and Economic EmpowermentSex-Based Classification | LGBTQ+ RightsAuthored Amicus Brief: Challenging denial of spousal health benefits by employer on the basis of same-sex marriage.
-
Violence Against Women and GirlsDomestic Violence and ChildrenAuthored Amicus Brief: The brief argues that lower court committed legal error by failing to adequately consider the effects of domestic violence on the child victim when granting unsupervised visitation to Defendant-Appellee.
