Voting Rights/Ballot Access

Like many states around the country, Alabama historically has made it very difficult for independent and small party candidates for political office to get on the ballot.  After researching the subject, I concluded that this was unfair both to the voters and the prospective candidate.  Accordingly, when the New Alliance Party, which has fielded candidates for local and national office around the country, was denied access to the ballot in Alabama, I filed a lawsuit in federal court, challenging the constitutionality of Alabama’s ballot access laws regarding filing deadlines for minor party candidates seeking access to the ballot. The Court struck down the law and entered a permanent injunction requiring the state to place the minor party candidates on the ballot for the general election.  On appeal, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the lower court and ordered the State to pay my fees.

Similarly, when a community activist wanted to run as an independent candidate for a U.S. Senate seat and was stymied in her efforts by stringent ballot access laws, I brought an action in federal court, raising an Equal Protection Clause challenge to Alabama’s ballot access laws regarding the level of support required for independent political candidates to gain access to the ballot. The law was struck down, enabling my client and many other similarly situated  independent candidates for state and national office to gain access to the ballot.

Religious Freedom and the First Amendment

Late one night, after a terrible car crash involving a woman and her daughter, both of whom were Jehovah’s Witnesses, I received a phone call from a judge asking me immediately to come to the hospital where he had created a courtroom to hear an action filed by the hospital and an attending physician seeking to require the daughter, who had suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash, to accept a blood transfusion against her wishes and religious beliefs.  At the request of the judge, I represented the young woman in an all-night hearing at the hospital with limited breaks for research.  In the early morning hours, the Court entered its decision upholding her constitutional right to refuse the transfusion and fortunately she survived.

A late night call from the ACLU led to a series of cases involving public school prayer.  The cases were the subject of a great deal of national media coverage and were mentioned in a popular book.  The initial call arose out of the arrest of a local university student who was arrested and beaten by police officers while protesting a public prayer led by elected public officials at a high school football game held in a municipal stadium.  The young man was falsely charged with assaulting the police officers.  Using a video from a local television broadcast of the game, in which the incident was captured inadvertently in a corner of the picture, the officers’ testimony was exposed as false and the young man was acquitted at his criminal trial.  In a suit for damages flowing from his arrest, he was able to recover from the City.  In an additional suit brought on his behalf and on behalf of others, some of whom were religious Christians who objected to what they considered to be the hijacking of their religion for political purposes, a permanent injunction was entered barring public officials and the School Board from sponsoring and leading prayers at public school athletic events.

In 2002, a Mississippi Ku Klux Klan group wanted to march in several towns on the same date in order to try and convey a particular message. They were at first completely barred from marching and then were confronted with a statutory scheme which effectively would have prevented the march. They were unable to find a lawyer willing to take on the case.  The ACLU got involved and asked me to represent the Klan.  I did and after an emotional trial, the federal court which heard the case struck down as unconstitutional an ordinance which required marchers to pay a permit fee and which prohibited wearing masks during public gatherings and entered an injunction requiring that the march be permitted and providing that the traditional Klan regalia, including masks, could be worn.

In 2008, I entered into a settlement with the State of Alabama which for the first time provided for Muslim chaplains in the State prison system.  During an Islamic prayer service, an inmate led a discussion about the propriety of reparations for the descendants of African-American slaves. The meeting was shut down and the inmate was thrown into solitary confinement, lost all privileges, and was transferred, based on a charge of inciting a disturbance and spreading anti-American propaganda. His pro se lawsuit in federal court was dismissed and he was sanctioned.  The ACLU was contacted and asked me to take on the case.  I briefed and argued the appeal and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed and remanded the case for a trial on the First Amendment claims.  The Court asked me to stay on to try the case and allowed me to amend his Complaint to raise other claims as well.  With the help of a conscientious Magistrate Judge, the State recognized the propriety of settling the case, paying damages for the inmate’s loss and recognizing the need for prison chaplains to meet the religious observance practices of Muslim inmates.

Police Misconduct

From the opening of my law practice, cases involving police brutality and other misconduct by law enforcement officers have been a special focus.  My father was a Special Agent with the F.B.I. and my family is very proud of his service.  I have always had an interest in the vitally important role law enforcement officers play, as well as the special responsibility they have in dealing fairly and appropriately with the public.

That relationship went horribly wrong one night in a rural town in Alabama.  During a hotly contested and racially charged local election, local police got word that a local teen planned on throwing a Molotov cocktail at the home of a political candidate.  Rather than putting a stop to it after learning about the plot, the police decided to lay in wait as the plan unfolded and when the young man appeared and threw the cocktail, the police opened fire and killed him.  I represented the young man’s family in a civil rights action against the City and its officers and, on the eve of trial, settled the case for what is reportedly a record amount of money in a police shooting case in the State of Alabama.

In a housing project in North Carolina, a young African-American man was beaten to death by police officers in front of approximately 30 witnesses. After filing the wrongful death action on behalf of the young man’s estate, interviewing all of the witnesses, conducting some discovery, and galvanizing the community through public meetings in various local churches and organized public marches, the case was settled, with the help of local counsel, for significant monetary damages.

In a particularly disturbing case, covered in a seminal book on the wrongful conviction of innocent people, I represented in an action for damages, a young African-American man who was severely beaten at police headquarters while being questioned about a murder. On one occasion, he was held incommunicado for 11 hours and a few days later for 17 hours. On both occasions, he was severely beaten in an effort to get him to confess to a murder he did not commit. He was then indicted for the murder based on the “investigation” of the detectives assigned to the case. After a one day trial, he was convicted of murder and remanded into custody. Shortly after the conviction, affidavits were secured from eye witnesses who were never even interviewed by his trial attorney. After presenting these affidavits and other evidence to the trial court judge, the conviction was set aside. I then filed a lawsuit against the police officers who had beaten him and who knowingly had secured a false murder conviction.  This case was settled for monetary damages.

I have litigated many cases on behalf of people who have been victims of excessive force and other misconduct by police officers, often taking on the case at the request of a federal judge.  In addition to my own practice, I also have served as a consultant to the Southern Poverty Law Center and to other organizations and private attorneys with cases involving such issues.  I have taught courses in this area of the law, have met with representatives of Congressional committees investigating the problem with a focus on corruption within the F.B.I., and have been involved in litigating some very high profile cases in this area of the law in various trial courts around the country.

Fair Housing Act

I have brought cases under the federal Fair Housing Act both for damages and for injunctive relief.

In one case for damages, I filed the case in federal court under the Fair Housing Act and state tort law on behalf of an Arab-American biochemistry professor. A white neighbor harassed and intimidated him over a prolonged period of time and brutally beat him up simply because he was an Arab-American and the neighbor did not want him living next door. The matter resulted in a criminal conviction for the neighbor and a monetary award for my client.

In a series of cases for injunctive relief under the Fair Housing Act, I filed federal court actions against New York’s Village Voice newspaper and another newspaper for running real estate advertisements which indicated limitations or preferences based on race, gender, and religious affiliation in clear violation of the Fair Housing Act. The cases resulted in the entry of a permanent injunction prohibiting such ads and requiring additional remedial action, including the payment of my attorneys’ fees so that my client would not bear the burden.

Employment Litigation

I have handled a number of cases in the field of employment litigation, generally representing the employee, but occasionally representing the business when I have been convinced that the claim was frivolous and would then undermine meritorious claims.  I have handled cases for my clients at the trial level and have argued appeals for other lawyers in federal appellate courts.  My employment cases have involved a range of issues.

For example, in an especially troubling case, sent to me by the Anti-Defamation League (“ADL”), I represented the plaintiff in a religious discrimination employment case against the international chemical giant E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (“DuPont”).  The client was the victim of virulent anti-Semitism at Dupont. The New York State Division of Human Rights, on behalf of the EEOC, conducted a year-long investigation into the matter and ultimately concluded that the client had been terminated because he was Jewish and in retaliation for his complaints about anti-Semitism at Dupont.  I followed up that finding with a lawsuit for damages in the Southern District of New York.  After significant pre-trial rulings favorable to my client on novel causes of action not previously recognized in the Second Circuit, Dupont settled the case, insisting on confidential terms.

On another occasion I represented one of the nation’s largest owners and operators of nursing homes in defending against a frivolous age and race discrimination case.  The case was dismissed after I took the plaintiffs’ depositions and filed a motion for summary judgment.

I have also been called on to represent employees in cases involving security clearances.  In one case in Atlanta, Georgia, a faithful and well respected engineer employed by Lockheed summarily was stripped of his security clearance, causing him to lose his job building fighter jets, simply because he held dual American and Israeli citizenship and had relatives living in both countries.  He worked at Lockheed in that status for 23 years without a single blemish on his record or any suspicion from any quarter until suddenly his clearance was stripped.  He protested this action by the Department of Defense and after a full trial, the Judge ruled in the employee’s favor, reversing the removal of his security clearance.  This was one of the very rare instances in which the employee has prevailed at trial or on appeal in such circumstances.

Miscellaneous Civil Rights Cases

My civil rights cases have included a variety of underlying issues and claims involving various constitutional and statutory rights in addition to those set forth above.

For example, one case involved the relationship between civil rights and party politics.  When the Democratic Party of the United States was sued in Alabama on accusations that it had a policy of permitting racial discrimination by its state affiliates, I represented the national party as co-counsel with some very fine lawyers from the Washington, DC firm of Hogan & Hartson.  During the trial in federal court, a judgment was entered in favor of our client.

In another case, commercial interests, competition, zoning, local politics, and civil rights were all at issue.  I represented a local merchant who owned and operated a liquor store in a challenge to an arbitrarily enforced city ordinance banning liquor sales within a certain distance from churches and schools. The case was settled with the city’s acknowledgment that the ordinance was unconstitutional. Legislation was passed repealing the ordinance and the merchant was paid significant monetary damages.

With the backing of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, I filed a case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania addressing discriminatory practices by the National Collegiate Athletic Association which overvalued college entrance exams in denying top minority student athletes from securing their dream of escaping poverty through college athletic scholarships and participation in varsity sports.