Opening Packet – Negative – hss 2017 offcase materials start here

Extensions

Extensions – No roll-back of Federal Anti-Discrimination

Status quo precedent is narrow It won’t broadly spillover to all civil liberty protections.

Grossman ‘17

Joanna L. Grossman is the Ellen K. Solender Endowed Chair in Women and Law at SMU Dedman School of Law. “Another Senseless Act of Destruction: The Trump Administration Undermines Protections for Transgender Students” – Verdict – Feb 28^th - https://verdict.justia.com/2017/02/28/another-senseless-act-destruction-trump-administration-undermines-protections-transgender-students

On February 22, 2017, the Trump administration issued another “Dear Colleague” letter, this time withdrawing the 2016 Dear Colleague letter and OCR’s Ferg-Cadima letter. The new letter is short, contains no analysis or citations, and gives only vague hints as to the reason for the action. It claims that the original guidance documents “do not, however, contain extensive legal analysis or explain how the position is consistent with the express language of Title IX” and did not “undergo any formal public process.” Moreover, the new letter notes, the “interpretation has given rise to significant litigation regarding school restrooms and locker rooms.” The original letters did contain careful analysis and citation to relevant legal authority, whereas the new letter cites nothing—it does not even give case names or citations for the cases to which it expressly refers.

The most surprising part of the new letter is this comment: “In addition, the Departments believe that, in this context, there must be due regard for the primary role of the States and local school districts in establishing educational policy.” This is a preposterous line of reasoning, given that the question is about the proper interpretation of a federal statute. States have no role to play in figuring that out, nor any discretion to provide their students with fewer protections than those guaranteed by federal law. Federal anti-discrimination law has a long history of protecting equality of opportunity where states have fallen short. There is no reason now to throw transgender students—and them alone—to the states that have exhibited nothing but overt hostility to them.

Extensions – Trump won’t roll-back

Trump won’t succeed in roll-back. And – if he tries – private lawsuits will step-in to fill the gap.

Cooper ‘16

Perry Cooper is a Senior Legal Editor and covers class procedure and consumer law for the Class Action Litigation Report. The author formerly served as a Law Clerk for Congressional Research Service and holds a J.D. from The College of William and Mary – Internally quoting JOCELYN D. LARKIN, who is the Executive Director of the Impact Fund.The Impact Fund in a legal practice that focuses on complex employment discrimination and class action practice on behalf of plaintiffs. Ms. Larkin has served as class counsel in many major class action lawsuits. “Will Civil Rights Class Actions Multiply Under Trump?” – Class Action Litigation Report - December 2^nd – available at: https://www.bna.com/civil-rights-class-n73014447996/

Frivolous cases overshadow the important work being done by class action attorneys and create a skepticism towards important cases, plaintiffs’ advocate Jocelyn Larkin said.

“Social justice cases need better press to counter negative views of class actions,” Larkin, executive director of the pro-plaintiff Impact Fund in Berkeley, Calif., said.

And civil rights class actions—which helped spark the modern version of the class action device more than 50 years ago—could increase if President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Justice deprioritizes civil rights enforcement, attorneys told Bloomberg BNA.

Government as Ocean Liner

Trump’s campaign rhetoric about creating a Muslim registry, building a wall with Mexico, bringing back “law and order” and limiting protesters’ rights have raised the hackles of civil rights advocates.

But any predictions on what Trump’s administration will follow through with are little better than guesses.

Bruce Adelson, who worked in the voting section at the DOJ during the Clinton-Bush transition, stressed that initially, not much changes.

As President Barack Obama said recently, the federal government is like an ocean liner: it’s big and difficult to move quickly, Adelson told Bloomberg BNA.

“I’m figuring that by the middle of next year we should start to see indications of new priorities or new directions,” he said. Adelson is the CEO of Federal Compliance Consulting LLC in Washington, which advises clients on compliance with civil rights laws.

Some say the day-to-day enforcement of bread and butter federal statutes isn’t likely to change.

Career attorneys will continue the work they’ve been doing in prior administrations, Gerald Maatman, who defends companies in employment discrimination and other civil rights actions, told Bloomberg BNA. Maatman is at partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Chicago.

He said it “rare that a policymaker will reach to the heartland and diddle around” or command government attorneys to do a certain thing with respect to a lawsuit.

“Stretch-the-envelope type cases” are a different story, Maatman said. He gave the example of the current Justice Department’s active support for transgender rights. He expects a retreat on those cases, enforcing the law as written—as he sees it—rather than stretching it to establish new precedent.

Trump’s pick of conservative Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to head the DOJ could be an indication of the direction the department will take.

“My initial reaction [to Sessions’s nomination] is I’m not optimistic that there will be vigorous enforcement in the civil rights area,” Michael Foreman told Bloomberg BNA. Foreman directs the civil rights appellate clinic at Pennsylvania State University law school in University Park, Pa.

But he reiterated that the DOJ “doesn’t move in big steps.”

“The attorney general can set a theme, he can set a direction, but there are laws in place that need to be enforced,” he said.

Private Bar Fills Enforcement Void

Any void left open in the administration’s civil rights enforcement will be filled by the private class action bar, as it has done during past Republican administrations, Larkin, the plaintiffs' lawyer, told Bloomberg BNA.

“It’s always somewhat easier when you have the backing of the administration on enforcement, but when we don’t we’ve forged ahead,” she said.

The new administration could pick areas where it decides it isn’t interested in enforcing civil rights statutes, Foreman said. He gave the example of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“They could either trim the budget or pick leadership that is not interested in pursuing systemic types of relief,” he said. “It will fall back to the private counsel to pick up those cases that the EEOC doesn’t do.”

But that’s part of how civil rights enforcement is designed to work, Suzette Malveaux, professor of complex litigation and civil rights law at Catholic University Law School in Washington, told Bloomberg BNA. Private cases are an “important piece of the enforcement puzzle,” she said.

“For example, for Title VII employment discrimination cases, there has always been an understanding by Congress that the class action mechanism is a critical piece of that enforcement,” she said. “Federal agencies and the private bar are both key players.”

Foreman said the private bar does an “extremely effective job,” especially with wage-and-hour and employment discrimination class actions. “They’ve actually been the driving force” behind those suits.

Protecting the Device

Another important job for the civil rights bar is protecting the class action device, Larkin said. “A big part of our mission is ensuring that there aren’t procedural obstacles that are thrown up to prevent the use of class actions to ensure civil rights.”

She had hoped that restrictions on mandatory arbitration would improve conditions for plaintiffs, but those Obama administration initiatives are unlikely to survive under the new leadership. She doesn’t expect to see any changes to Fed. R. Civ. P. 23, the federal rule that governs class actions, however.

Trump will also get to appoint a new justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was viewed as hostile to class actions during Justice Antonin Scalia's tenure.

But Larkin stressed that while the Supreme Court matters to civil rights litigation, “the bread and butter civil rights class actions are being heard by district court judges and appellate court judges who for the most part are practical and not particularly politically driven.”

“That’s where we will be litigating most of our cases and ensuring that the values underlying the civil rights laws are preserved,” Larkin said.

Trump won’t roll-back civil rights – that’s an exaggeration.

Scott ‘17

et al; Eugene Scott is a reporter for CNN Politics, covering Washington, national politics and identity politics. He received his master's in public administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government where he was senior editor of the Harvard Journal on African-American Policy. Scott received his bachelor's in journalism and mass communication from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Internally quoting Gregory T. Angelo, president of Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBT group. “LGBT community prepares for a march -- and a fight” – CNN – June 11^th – modified for language that may offend. http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/09/politics/lgbt-policies-march-pride/index.html

Conservative gay Americans, for their part, view the march as a partisan event emphasizing "division far more than equality," said Gregory T. Angelo, president of Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBT group.

"For months now we've heard (it has been conveyed) that Trump is going to 'roll back' advances made by the LGBT community, and time and again those rumors were proven to be unfounded," he told CNN. "All of this chicken-littling has turned the self-styled 'Resistance' into little more than a hollow cliche."

Extensions - STEM Education = Alt Cause

Alt Cause – STEM Education is key to innovation.

Kelly ‘14

et al; Brian Kelly is editor and chief content officer of U.S. News & World Report. Kelly attended Georgetown University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics. Kelly is on the board of the World Affairs Council of Washington and a member of the Economic Club of Washington. - “STEM Proficiency: A Key Driver of Innovation, Economic Growth and National Security” – US News and World Report - April 23^rd - https://www.usnews.com/news/stem-index/articles/2014/04/23/stem-proficiency-a-key-driver-of-innovation-economic-growth-and-national-security

STEM: what a terrible acronym. It’s one of those awkward labels that become accepted shorthand for a wonky policy topic because no one can figure out a better way to say it. But don’t let clunkiness obscure significance. STEM is also an under appreciated, and troubling, component of the U.S. economy. The real meaning behind “STEM” is the mismatch between supply and demand in a key part of the country’s labor pipeline. The demand for the many jobs requiring STEM skills—science, technology, engineering and math—is outstripping the supply, and the problem will only get worse.

That’s what we found when we crunched the numbers in the first-ever STEM Index, a basket of data measuring the state of STEM jobs and education since 2000. We wanted to impose some metrics on a much-discussed but ill-defined subject that has become a concern for most major industries in the U.S. STEM proficiency is a key driver of innovation, economic growth and ultimately national security. For instance, some of the most coveted and scarce skills today are in the fields of cybersecurity.

But STEM is not just about tech companies. It’s not just about people who wear lab coats. STEM skills are needed in the many millions of jobs that will have to be filled in sectors such as energy, manufacturing, food production and perhaps most significantly, health care. What industry does not need more workers with science and math know-how? And not just at the high end. Having STEM skills could mean making it into the middle class, or not.

Going back to studies like the seminal “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” report of 2005, the problem has been a focus of much attention. But we wanted to add some new rigor by creating a unique set of data that looked at how the U.S. has fared in tackling this supply-demand challenge. We plotted dozens of statistics that measured student test performance, aptitude, and interest against job demand (read the full methodology). The result is a 14-year average that tells an important part of the STEM story, with limits. Our new benchmark, the U.S. News/Raytheon STEM Index, is a starting point that’s meant to lead to deeper discussions, and ultimately solutions. And of course any broad-based graph can only tell you so much; the analyses behind the component parts are ultimately the most revealing.

What the numbers tell us is that the country has made little progress on a problem we’ve seen coming for a long time. Despite growing job demand, the pipeline of talent is weak and will remain that way for at least a decade if nothing changes. There are some recent glimmers of hope, reflected in an uptick over the past two years, but they are coming from a select part of the population. Our top-line data, supported by other studies, shows that some portion of white males, along with Americans of Asian descent, are increasingly drawn to STEM subjects, while those who represent the bulk of the future labor pool—women, Latinos and African-Americans—are showing disproportionately little interest.