In this country, women have a constitutional right to abortion. This month, Susan Cahill, a Montana physician’s assistant who protected that constitutional right by providing abortions in one of four abortion clinics in Montana, filed a civil lawsuit in state court against anti-abortion extremists. Anti-abortion extremist Zachary Klundt broke into her medical clinic and completely destroyed it, thereby putting her out of business.
Last week, victims of civil rights abuses by police scored two victories in Massachusetts and New York. In Massachusetts, in Stamps v. Framingham, the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals held that a police officer who holds a loaded gun at the head of a non-threatening, compliant individual, with the gun’s safety off, cannot avoid civil liability for accidentally shooting and killing the individual. In New York, in Held v. Christian, a police officer agreed in a court settlement to pay $45,000 to an individual whose nude photos he stole after taking possession of her cell phone during a routine traffic stop.
Last week, in Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt, a divided Kansas appeals court voted 7-7 to affirm a lower court’s decision to block a controversial Kansas law that essentially criminalized second trimester abortions for women in Kansas.
Last week, in Kent v Oakland County, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision finding that police officers could not be shielded from a civil rights lawsuit by a victim of excessive police force involving in a taser.
Last week, in Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin v. Schimel, the federal Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Wisconsin law banning doctors from providing abortions if they don’t have hospital admission privileges within 30 miles.
This month, in Shadrick v. Hopkins County, the federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a private, for-profit corporation providing medical services to prisoners may be liable for violating the federal constitutional rights of prisoners by failing to adequately train its medical staff.
Last month, First Amendment defenders won two significant victories in New York. First, protestors of Donald Trump’s racist run for President secured the right to protest in front of Trump Tower in downtown Manhattan.
Last week, in Hassan v. New York, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court and held that a lawsuit may move forward against the NYPD for spying on Muslims. The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit against the NYPD for discriminating against them as Muslims.
Last week, in P.P. v. Compton Unified School District, a federal court in Southern California held that a case may move forward alleging that trauma impacts from poverty and racism qualify as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The plaintiffs in the case are multiple youth, and their teachers, who work or attend public schools in Compton, California. Compton is one of the most socio-economically distressed areas in the country, and it experiences attendant high rates of violent crime and homelessness. The youth in the Compton school district experience horrifying trauma in their daily lives, such as being stabbed or witnessing friends and family shot or stabbed in front of them, sleeping on top of the school cafeteria roof for months due to homelessness, and being arrested at gunpoint by police while at school in a case of mistaken identity.
Last week, in Cole v. Carson, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Texas held that a teenager who was shot by police could take the police to court for federal civil rights violations. The teen had recently broken up with his girlfriend and had walked into the woods pointing a gun to his own head. He backed out of the woods with the gun still to his head and then turned to his left to continue walking and police officers opened fire on him.
