School Notes: Yale Law School
November/December 2016

Education clinic wins 11-year battle

After more than 11 years of litigation and an appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court, the Law School’s Education Adequacy Project Clinic won a landmark victory for the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF). On September 7, Judge Thomas Moukawsher of the Connecticut Superior Court ruled that the state’s public primary and secondary education system systematically deprives Connecticut’s schoolchildren of their right to an adequate education under the Connecticut Constitution. The court applied the standards set by the Connecticut Supreme Court in 2010, when Yale Law students argued in the Supreme Court on behalf of CCJEF. After a six-month trial, Judge Moukawsher found that Connecticut is not fulfilling its non-delegable duty to provide an education based on “standards that are rationally, substantially, and verifiably connected to teaching children.” The case was conceived, filed, and litigated by Law School students under the supervision of former Clinical Professor Bob Solomon. The clinic is now supervised by David Rosen ’69JD, Alex Knopp, and Alex Taubes ’15JD. 

Litigation clinic marks ten years

It began as an idea by YLS professor Heather Gerken and then–San Francisco Deputy City Attorney Kathleen Morris to have Yale Law School students research cases for the city attorney’s office in exchange for the experience of working alongside top lawyers. The result was the San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project (SFALP), which celebrated ten years of hands-on experience and landmark results this past July. More than 200 students have participated in the clinic since it began, and it is now one of the Law School’s largest and most popular student clinics. SFALP students work with San Francisco deputy city attorneys to conceive, develop, and litigate some of the most innovative public-interest lawsuits in the country. They have done cutting-edge work on privacy issues, gay rights, environmental reform, housing, immigration, and labor/employment, including the historic Proposition 8 case before the US Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage in California.