Cause Lawyering
Elon Law School
Winter 2022
Room 105
Mondays & Wednesdays, 3:30-5:30 pm
Eric M. Fink
efink@elon.edu
+1 336 279 9334
Office hours by appointment
Introduction
3 January
Cause Lawyers
Anna-Maria Marshall & Daniel Crocker Hale, Cause Lawyering, 10 Annual Review of Law & Social Science 301 (2014)
Michael McCann, Law & Social Movements, in Sarat, ed., The Blackwell Companion to Law & Society 506 (2011)
Sandra Levitsky, Law and Social Movements: Old Debates and New Directions, in Sarat & Ewick, eds. The Handbook of Law and Society 382 (2015)
5 January
Cause Lawyers in the Legal Profession
10 January
Public Interest Law Organizations
Catherine R. Albiston & Laura Beth Neilson, Funding the Cause: How Public Interest Law Organizations Fund Their Activities and Why It Matters for Social Change, 39 Law & Social Inquiry 62 (2014)
Laura Beth Nielsen & Catherine R. Albiston, The Organization of Public Interest Practice: 1975-2004, 84 North Carolina Law Review 1591 (2006)
Megan Ming Francis, The Price of Civil Rights: Black Lives, White Funding, and Movement Capture, 53 Law & Society Review 275 (2019)
12 January
Cause Lawyers in Government Agencies
Douglas NeJaime, Cause Lawyers Inside the State, 81 Fordham Law Review 649 (2012)
David Luban, The Moral Complexity of Cause Lawyers Within the State, 81 Fordham Law Review 705 (2012)
Steven K. Berenson, Government Lawyer as Cause Lawyer: A Study of Three High Profile Government Lawsuits, 86 Denver Law Review 457 (2009)
19 January
Cause Lawyers in Private Practice
Bettina Brownstein, Private Practice & Cause Lawyering: A Practical & Ethical Guide, 31 Univ. of Arkansas Law Review 601 (2009)
Brenda Bratton Blom, Cause Lawyering and Social Movements: Can Solo and Small Firm Practitioners Anchor Social Movements?, in Sarat, ed., 39 Studies in Law, Politics, & Society 119 (2006)
Louise Trubek & M. Elizabeth Kransberger, Critical Lawyers: Social Justice and the Structures of Private Practice, in Sarat & Abel, eds., Cause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities 201 (1998)
24 January
Cause Lawyering Fields and Networks
Steven Teles, The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law (Princeton Univ. Press 2008). Read Chap. 2 (The Rise of the Liberal Legal Network) and Chap. 5 (The Federalist Society: Counter-networking)
Anthony Paik, Ann Southworth & John P. Heinz, Lawyers of the Right: Networks and Organization, 32 Law & Social Inquiry 883 (2007)
Anthony Paik, John P. Heinz, & Ann Southworth, Political Lawyers: The Structure of a National Network, 36 Law & Social Inquiry 892 (2011)
Leila Kawar, Legal Mobilization on the Terrain of the State: Creating a Field of Immigrant Rights Lawyering in France and the United States, 36 Law & Social Inquiry 354 (2011)
26 January
Professional Identity
Stephen Meili, Consumer Cause Lawyers in the United States: Lawyers for the Movement or a Movement Unto Themselves?, in Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers & Social Movements 120 (2006)
Kevin R. Den Dulk, In Legal Culture, but Not of It: The Role of Cause Lawyers in Evangelical Legal Mobilization, in Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers & Social Movements 197 (2006)
Corey S. Shdaimah, Intersecting Identities: Cause Lawyers as Legal Professionals & Social Movement Actors, in Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers & Social Movements] 220 (2006)
John Heinz, Ann Southworth, & Anthony Paik Lawyers for Conservative Causes: Clients, Ideology, and Social Distance, 37 Law & Society Review 5 (2003)
Kenneth Mack, Law and Mass Politics in the Making of the Civil Rights Lawyer, 1931-1941, 93 Journal of American History 37 (2006)
31 January
Legal Ethics
Susan Carle and Scott Cummings, A Reflection on the Ethics of Movement Lawyering, 31 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 447 (2018)
Susan Carle, Ethics and the History of Social Movement Lawyering, 2018 Wis. L. Rev. Forward 12 (2018)
Susan Carle, Race, Class, and Legal Ethics in the Early NAACP (1910–1920), 20 Law & History Review 97 (2002)
Susan Carle, From Buchanan to Button: Legal Ethics and the NAACP (Part II), 8 University of Chicago Law School Roundtable 281 (2001)
Margareth Etienne, The Ethics of Cause Lawyering: An Empirical Examination of Criminal Defense Lawyers as Cause Lawyers, 95 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 1195 (2005)
Deborah Cantrell, Sensational Reports: The Ethical Duty of Cause Lawyers to be Competent in Public Advocacy, 30 Hamline Law Review 567 (2007)
Law, Lawyers & Movements
2 February
Legal Mobilization
Lynn Jones, The Haves Come Out Ahead: How Cause Lawyers Frame the Legal System for Movements, in Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers & Social Movements 182 (2006)
Kenneth Andrews & Kay Jowers, Lawyers and Embedded Legal Activity in the Southern Civil Rights Movement, 40 Law & Policy 10 (2018)
Francesca Polletta, The Structural Context of Novel Rights Claims: Rights Innovation in the Southern Civil Rights Movement, 1961-1966, 34 Law and Society Review 376 (2000)
Jennifer Woodward, Making Rights Work: Legal Mobilization at the Agency Level, 49 Law & Society Review 691 (2015)
7 February
Litigation, Legislative, & Transactional Cause Lawyering
Anna-Maria Marshall, Social Movement Strategies & the Participatory Potential of Litigation, in Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers & Social Movements 164 (2006)
Scott Barclay & Daniel Chomsky, How Do Cause Lawyers Decide When and Where to Litigate on Behalf of their Cause?, 48 Law & Society Review 595 (2014)
Kathleen M. Erskine and Judy Marblestone, The Movement Takes the Lead: The Role of Lawyers in the Struggle for a Living Wage in Santa Monica, California, in Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers & Social Movements, in Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers & Social Movements 249 (2006)
Jennifer Gordon, A Movement in the Wage of a New Law: The United Farm Workers & the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, in Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers & Social Movements 277 (2006)
Aaron Porter, Norris, Schmidt, Green, Harris, Higginbothom & Associates: The Sociological Import of Philadelphia Cause Lawyers, in Cause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities 151 (1998)
Scott L. Cummings, Mobilization Lawyering: Community Economic Development in the Figueroa Corridor, in Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers & Social Movements 302 (2006)
9 February
Movements & Counter-Movements
David S. Meyer & Suzanne Staggenborg, Movements, Countermovements, and the Structure of Political Opportunity, 101 American Journal of Sociology 1628 (1996)
Francisco Valdes, Culture, “Kulturkampf”, and Beyond: The Antidiscrimination Principle under the Jurisprudence of Backlash, in The Blackwell Companion to Law & Society, Chap. 15
Michael McCann & Jeffrey Dudas, Retrenchment … and Resurgence? Mapping the Changing Context of Movement Lawyering in the United States, in Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers & Social Movements 37 (2006)
Thomas M. Keck, Beyond Backlash: Assessing the Impact of Judicial Decisions on LGBT Rights, 43 Law & Society Review 151 (2009)
Michael Dorf & Sidney Tarrow, Strange Bedfellows: How an Anticipatory Countermovement Brought Same-Sex Marriage into the Public Arena, 39 Law & Social Inquiry 449 (2014)
14 February
Determinants and Meaning of Success
Erik Johnson, Social Movement Size, Organizational Diversity and the Making of Federal Law, 86 Social Forces 967 (2008)
Anne Bloom, Practice Style and Successful Legal Mobilization, Law & Contemporary Problems (2008)
Melinda D. Kane, You’ve Won, Now What? The Influence of Legal Change on Gay and Lesbian Mobilization, 1974-1999, 51 Sociological Quarterly 255 (2010)
Kenneth T. Andrews and Sarah Gaby, Local Protest and Federal Policy: The Impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 30 Sociological Forum 509 (2015)
16 February
Critical Appraisals
Sandra R. Levitsky, To Lead with Law: Reassessing the Influence of Legal Advocacy Organizations in Social Movements, in Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers & Social Movements 145 (2006)
Thomas Hilbink, The Profession, the Grassroots & the Elite: Cause Lawyering for Civil Rights & Freedom in the Direct Action Era, in Sarat & Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers & Social Movements 60 (2006)
Tifanei Ressl-Moyer, Pilar Gonzalez Morales & Jaqueline Aranda Osorno, Movement Lawyering During a Crisis: How the Legal System Exploits the Labor of Activists and Undermines Movements, 24 CUNY Law Review 91 (2021)
Scott L. Cummings, Rethinking the Foundational Critiques of Lawyers in Social Movements, 85 Fordham Law Review (2017)
Case Studies
21 February
The Scottsboro Trials
Robin D.G. Kelley, In the Heart of Trouble: Race, Sex, & the ILD, Chap. 4 in Hammer & Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (1990)
Charles H. Martin, The International Labor Defense and Black America, 26 Labor History 165 (1985)
Hollace Randsell, Conflict Between Rival Organizations for Control of the Case, from Report on the Scottsboro, Ala. Trials, prepared for the ACLU (1931)
American Experience, Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
- The Scottsboro Trial: A Timeline
- Who Were the Scottsboro Boys?
- A Fateful Journey
- The Scottsboro Defense Committee
- The NAACP and the Scottsboro Trial
- The International Labor Defense
- The Scottsboro Defense Attorney
- The Scottsboro Accusers
- The Scottsboro Judges
Norris v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 587 (1935)
Patterson v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 600 (1935)
23 February
Brown v. Board of Education
Scott Baker & Gary Biglaiser, A Model of Cause Lawyering, 43 Journal of Legal Studies 37 (2014)
Derrick A. Bell, Jr., Serving Two Masters: Integration Ideals & Client Interests in School Desegregation Litigation, 85 Yale Law Journal 470 (1976)
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 349 U.S. 294 (1955)
Gerald Rosenberg, The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? 42-57 (2d ed. 2008)
Erika Frankenberg, What school segregation looks like in the US today, in 4 charts, The Conversation (July 19, 2019)
28 February
Shelley v. Kraemer
Jeffrey D. Gonda, Unjust Deeds: The Restrictive Covenant Cases and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement (2015).
- Introduction—Restrictive Covenants, Housing Rights, and the Civil Rights Movement
- Chap. 2—Courtrooms: Local Lawyers and Legal Activism
- Chap. 3—The NAACP: National Leadership and Housing Desegregation
- Chap. 5—Failures and Foundations: The Covenant Cases and Postwar Black Freedom Struggles
Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948)
Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers, eds., American Panorama: An Atlas of United States History, University of Richmond Digital Scholarship Lab
- Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America, Greensboro, NC
- Renewing Indquality: Urban Renewal, Family Displacements, and Race, 1955-1966 Greensboro, NC
Cheryl Thompson, Racial covenants, a relic of the past, are still on the books across the country, National Public Radio (Nov. 17, 2021)
Social Movement Theory
David A. Snow, et al, Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation, 51 American Sociological Review 464 (1986)
J. Craig Jenkins, Resource Mobilization Theory and the Study of Social Movements, 9 Annual Review of Sociology 527 (1983)