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IN THIS ISSUE

Table of Contents

Letter from the President: Connecting the Dots

Notes on the Right: The Enduring Importance of Strategy

EJS December 8 Fundraiser Features Harriet Tubman Jazz Oratorio

Vote Yes on 89: 'Clean Money' Initiative

First California, Now Michigan: Putting Race up for a Vote

Supreme Court to Revisit Brown v. Board in School Cases

EJS, CTA Look at Unconscious Bias in Schools

U.N. Committee Criticizes Racism in U.S.

New Voting Rights Act Under Attack

A First Look at the Roberts Court

Latina/o Law Student Symposium

Foundations Support EJS Efforts to Balance Racial Justice Debate

Farewell from our Irmas Fellow

Staff News and Notes

Newsletter Editors:
Elaine Elinson
Miguel Gavaldón

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Staff/Board News & Notes

Nicolas Espíritu, Joins EJS Staff as First Judge Constance Baker Motley Fellow

Nicolas Espíritu, selected as the first EJS Judge Constance Baker Motley Civil Rights Fellow, started working the EJS Legal Department in November, and will be with the organization for a year.

Nicholas obtained his B.A. from San Jose State University and his J.D with a concentration in Critical Race Studies from the UCLA School of Law, where he served as a managing editor for the Chicano-Latino Law Review. He was also one of the inaugural LatCrit Student Scholars and his article, (E)Racing Youth: The Racialized Construction of California’s Proposition 21 and the Development of Alternate Contestations, was published in the LatCrit symposium issue of the Cleveland State Law Review. He was the Thurgood Marshall Fellow at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, where he worked on voting rights, immigrants' rights and discrimination in the allocation of municipal services.

The Equal Justice Society  launched the Constance Baker Motley Civil Rights Fellowship after her death in 2005.  The program is aimed at nurturing the talents of a new generation of progressive lawyers to transform anti-discrimination law and policy.

The new fellowship, named in honor of the first African American woman on the federal bench, will be awarded annually to a recent law school graduate committed to advancing racial justice through innovative legal strategies and progressive public policy.

Paterson Speaks on Civil Rights Panel at Black Judges’ Conference

EJS President Eva Paterson with fellow panelists at Just the Beginning Foundation Biennial Conference for African American Federal Judges.  Paterson spoke at a panel on civil rights moderated by EJS Board Chair, Professor Charles Ogletree.  The panel also included john powell, Director of the Kirwan Institute, Ted Shaw of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and  Saul Green,  Court Monitor for an agreement seeking to help stop the disproportionate killing of Blacks by the Cincinnati Police Department.

EJS President Eva Paterson served as emcee for the gala
event honoring Judge Henderson (photo courtesy of Alain McLaughlin Photography)

The stunning rotunda of San Francisco City Hall was taken over by the champions of  the legal and judicial world on the night of September 15, when Boalt Hall Law School held a dinner to announce that its Center for Social Justice was to be renamed in honor of  Judge Henderson, “one of Boalt’s most distinguished alumni.”  The 1962 Boalt Hall graduate is chief judge emeritus of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where he has served since his appointment by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. “As a federal judge, Thelton's contributions to the causes of equality and civil rights is an inspiration to all who work for social justice in this country,” said Mary Louise Frampton, Director of the Center.

Dr. Roberto Vargas, EJS Organizational Guide, Honored by KQED as a Latino Heritage Local Hero

Dr. Robert Vargas, who has served EJS as an organizational consultant and guide, was honored as a Latino Heritage Local Hero by KQED in San Francisco.  “We join KQED in honoring Roberto for his wisdom and leadership in helping set goals and strategic plans for many Bay Area community organizations,” said EJS President Eva Paterson.  Dr. Vargas is the co-founder of La Clinica Mental Heath Services in Oakland in 1974. La Familia Counseling Center  in Hayward, and the  Days of the Dead Program of the Oakland Museum of California which draws over 18,000 persons to the Museum annually to learn about the practice of this tradition for family healing and honoring deceased loved ones.

Internships at EJS

The Equal Justice Society is currently accepting applications for a variety of legal, policy, communications and research internship opportunities available during the 2006-2007 academic year.  For more information, please go to [link].

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