In November 2019, a video depicting a physical altercation between two high school classmates over anti-gay name-calling went viral. Shared widely on Twitter, the video draws attention to what some call a “systemic failure” to address the prevalence of anti-LGBTQ bullying in schools....

Back in September 2019, when a fourth-grader from Orlando was teased and made fun of for creating his own University of Tennessee t-shirt for a spirit event, the university stepped in and sold his shirt design in the campus shop. Proceeds from the 112,715 t-shirts purchased have reached...

Third-grader Gabriel Taye was bullied at school on the day he hung himself in January 2017, according to attorneys representing the boy’s family in a case against Cincinnati Public Schools and school officials. Two days prior to the tragedy, the 8-year old Carson Elementary School student was...

A seventh grader from Nashville appears to have taken her own life after being repeatedly bullied at school. The 12-year old was physically hit and taunted by a group of students who had a reputation for bullying, which got so bad that the victim’s mother pulled her out of school in late...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has upheld an injunction barring the U.S. Air Force from discharging two HIV-positive airmen. The lawsuit stems from a Defense Department policy that forbids HIV-positive service members from deploying outside the United States...

In reviewing two separate lawsuits concerning teachers at religion-based schools, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the extent that religious groups can avoid discrimination lawsuits filed against them by their employees. A legal doctrine known as the “ministerial exception” is intended to...

More than 30 years after the murder conviction of Jack Sagin, he was exonerated and released from prison in October 2019. Using evidence based on testimony from a jailhouse informant, a jury found Sagin guilty of murdering a 40-year old California woman in 1986. Sagin won the right to conduct...

In a 2019 landmark decision, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia awarded over $700,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees to an African American woman threatened and harassed on social media by white supremacists. Filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, pro...

The second-half of 2019 brought a number of significant decisions impacting plaintiffs who had their civil rights violated. In July of 2019, the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued a decision surrounding juvenile resentencing. The ruling clarified that, when resentencing men and women...

School resource officers are present in about half of schools across the country as many school districts are seeking ways to help keep students safe. However, for students at Lansing Eastern High School in Michigan, their protected learning environment was compromised. School resource...

In a recent Illinois Appellate Court decision, Jackie Wilson’s 1982 conviction of armed robbery and murder was overturned, granting him a new trial. After what resulted in the “biggest manhunt in Chicago’s history,” Wilson maintained that two police detectives who interrogated him, beat and...

Wrongful imprisonment is a fact of life in the American justice system. Research has uncovered some common causes of wrongful conviction. These causes include: Improper Forensics: Forensic science techniques that lack scientific validation or reliability. Eyewitness Misidentification:...