The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) faces another civil rights complaint. Last April, the Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Environmental Justice Clinic, on behalf of North Carolina nonprofits and residents, filed a complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Civil Rights under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging that the …
According to the North Carolina Court of Appeals, courts can let people with mental health conditions sit in jail, indefinitely, waiting for mental health evaluations to determine whether they need to be involuntarily committed to regain the mental capacity to proceed to trial. This decision balks in the face of due process, justice, and the …
What happens when someone’s Miranda rights are violated? Who is held accountable? These are questions that the United States’ Supreme Court (“Supreme Court” or “Court”) has left unanswered following its ruling in Vega v. Tekoh. At issue in this case was whether a violation of Miranda could be the basis for a Section 1983 claim. …
In June 2022, when the Fourth Circuit ruled in Peltier v. Charter Day School, Inc. that charter school students are not beyond the reach of Constitutional protections, it prevented these institutions from being havens for blatant gender discrimination. The defendant in this case, Charter Day School (CDS) in Brunswick County, North Carolina, is a …
Imagine you have a child who is deaf, but her school refuses to provide her with an in-class sign language interpreter. This happened to Amy Rowley in 1982 and situations like hers remain all too common. Parents of students with disabilities have the right to challenge schools’ inaction and seek changes in services. This right …
