Amicus Briefs
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Workplace Equality and Economic EmpowermentRights of Pregnant WomenAuthored Amicus Brief: Whether the history and Congressional Intent of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act requires employers to treat pregnant women the same as other temporarily disabled workers.
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Equal Educational OpportunitiesSex-Based ClassificationJoined Amicus Brief: Determines whether a school's policy that prohibits students from wearing certain breast cancer awareness bracelets is based on stereotypes concerning the men and women's roles.
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Fairness in the CourtsSex-Based Classification | LGBTQ+ RightsJoined Amicus Brief: Determines the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Section 3 defines marriage as between one man and one woman.
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Fairness in the Courts | Violence Against Women and GirlsChild Abuse | International Human RightsAuthored Amicus Brief: Determined whether the U.S. government violated international human rights treaties by failing to protect an individual from—and provide a remedy for—domestic violence, when local law enforcement failed to do so.
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Violence Against Women and Girls | Workplace Equality and Economic EmpowermentImmigration | Public Benefits and PovertyAuthored Amicus Brief: Determined whether the State of Washington can terminate state-funded food assistance to lawfully present immigrants who are ineligible for federally-funded food assistance due to their immigrant status.
