January-February 2011 Clearinghouse Review

This issue includes several articles describing how adopting a human rights framework can help legal aid attorneys meet broader advocacy goals for their clients. Other articles cover the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, framing federal claims to vindicate individual rights, incorporating social work into legal aid practice, and using consumer law to combat criminal record barriers to housing and employment.

Advocacy Note: HUD's Failure to Preserve Subsidy in Multifamily Foreclosure Illegal, Third Circuit Holds and Remands Regarding Displacement
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

By Kevin Quisenberry
Advocacy Note: Past Arrests May Not Be Sole Basis for Rejecting Public Housing Applicants
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

By Marie Claire Tran-Leung, Katherine E. Walz, and Richard M. Wheelock
Beyond Advocacy Alone: Incorporating Social Work into Legal Aid Practice
When representing certain clients, a growing number of legal aid programs involve social workers. These attorney-social worker collaborations can often accomplish more for clients than either profession could accomplish alone, but attorneys' and social workers' ethical obligations may differ. A clear understanding of attorneys' and social workers' respective roles is requisite for collaboration to succeed.

Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related Articles
- John Bouman, Expanding Horizons: Thoughts on Agenda-Setting and a Full Advocacy Toolbox for Legal Services (March-April 2010)
By Mara Tencer Block and Andrya Soprych
You Have a Federal Right, but Do You Have a Remedy?
Federal statutes confer many individual rights, particularly in the areas of the safety net and civil rights. However, recent U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence prevents the enforcement of these rights in courts. When framing claims to vindicated individual rights, advocates must be mindful of these Supreme Court legal doctrines. Express and implied statutory rights of action, along with implied constitutional rights of action, are most likely to be successful.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related Articles
- Jane Perkins, Gill Deford, Matthew Diller and Gary F. Smith, The Supreme Court's 2006-2007 Term: The Shift to the Right Takes Shape (November-December 2007)
- Jane Perkins, Using Section 1983 to Enforce Federal Laws (March-April 2005)
- Lauren K. Saunders, Preemption As an Alternative to Section 1983 (March-April 2005)
- Rochelle Bobroff, Legal Services Attorney Fees Are Obtainable in Pending Cases (July-August 2010)
- Graham G. Martin and David Super, Judicial Deference to Administrative Agencies and Its Limits (March-April 2007)
By Rochelle Bobroff
Sargent Shriver: Legal Services as Peace Building
A letter from Shriver Center President John Bouman celebrating the legacy of R. Sargent Shriver.
Human Rights Frameworks, Strategies, and Tools for the Poverty Lawyer's Toolbox
Over the past decade many organizations at the local, state, national, and international levels have adopted human rights frameworks to deal with issues of concern to people living in poverty. As the use of human rights frameworks by advocates, organizers, and poor people increases, poverty lawyers need to become knowledgeable about international human rights law. Moreover, poverty lawyers should consider adding human rights frameworks to their toolbox of advocacy strategies.

Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related Articles
- Caroline Bettinger-Lopez, The Inter-American Human Rights System: A Primer (March-April 2009)
- Eric Tars, Who Knows What Lurks in the Hearts of Human Rights Violators? The Shadow (Reporter) Knows--Human Rights Shadow Reporting: A Strategic Tool for Domestic Justice (Jan.-Feb. 2009)
- Youmna Chlala & Chivy Sok, Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (July-Aug. 2008)
- Martha F. Davis, Human Rights in the Trenches: Using International Human Rights Law in "Everyday" Legal Aid Cases (Nov.-Dec. 2007)
By Gillian MacNaughton
Using Human Rights to Move Beyond the Politically Possible
The Vermont Workers' Center used a human rights framework to build a successful grassroots campaign for legislation requiring the state to design universal health care plans that incorporate human rights principles. Despite advice that the outcome was not politically possible, the organization built a base of citizen support that affirmed health care as a human right.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related Articles
- Jamie Price & Kenneth R. Melchin, Recovering Sargent Shriver's Vision for Poverty Law: The Illinois Familycare Campaign and the Insight Approach to Conflict Resolution and Collaboration (Jan.-Feb. 2010)
- John Bouman, Growing the Toolbox: Diverse Strategies for Public Interest Lawyers in Campaigns to Expand Access to Health Care for Low-Income People (July-Aug. 2009)
- John Bouman & Robert A. Crittenden, Health Care Reform: Seizing the Moment and Shaping the Message (Nov.-Dec. 2008)
- Martha F. Davis, Human Rights in the Trenches: Using International Human Rights Law in "Everyday" Legal Aid Cases (Nov.-Dec. 2007)
By Mariah McGill
News and Notes
Using Consumer Law to Combat Criminal Record Barriers to Employment and Housing Opportunity
Employers and landlords often use criminal background checks to investigate potential employees and tenants, even though criminal record screening has been shown to be discriminatory, unreliable, and inaccurate. Criminal background checks often dash the hopes of people who have never even been convicted of crimes but were arrested at some point in the past. Understanding the Fair Credit Reporting Act and its interplay with state statutes can help legal services lawyers vindicate the rights of people harmed by criminal record screening.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related Articles
- Sharon M. Dietrich, When "Your Permanent Record" is a Permanent Barrier: Helping Legal Aid Clients Reduce the Stigma of Criminal Records (July-August 2007)
- McGregor Smith, Cross-Sector Collaboration in Reentry: Building an Infrastructure for Change (July-August 2007)
- John Bouman, Joseph A. Antolin, & Melissa Young, Attacking Poverty by Attacking Chronic Unemployment: An Update on Developments in Transitional Job Strategies for Former Prisoners (July-August 2007)
By Louis Prieto, Persis S. Yu, and Jason Hoge
Using a Human Rights Framework at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau
Attorneys in legal services often puzzle over how to incorporate human rights principles into their busy practices. In 2009 the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau adopted a human rights framework to assist its attorneys in meeting broader advocacy goals for their clients. Although developing and implementing the framework took serious effort, using human rights concepts derived from international agreements has helped the bureau confront clients' problems in innovative ways. The framework has also opened up new opportunities for organization, mobilization, and collaboration.

Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related Articles
- Caroline Bettinger-Lopez, The Inter-American Human Rights System: A Primer (March-April 2009)
- Eric Tars, Who Knows What Lurks in the Hearts of Human Rights Violators? The Shadow (Reporter) Knows--Human Rights Shadow Reporting: A Strategic Tool for Domestic Justice (Jan.-Feb. 2009)
- Youmna Chlala & Chivy Sok, Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (July-Aug. 2008)
- Martha F. Davis, Human Rights in the Trenches: Using International Human Rights Law in "Everyday" Legal Aid Cases (Nov.-Dec. 2007)
By J. Peter Sabonis
Using Law for Change: Litigation to Challenge Systemic Violations
Starting in the 1980s, the pursuit of social justice litigation has become challenging due to more conservative judges, tougher class certification and substantive law decisions, more demanding attorney-fee and cost-recovery requirements, the decline in federal enforcement of civil rights and environmental laws, and cutbacks and restrictions on legal services funding. Nonetheless, taking a holistic approach--using media, working with community organizations, and using the full range of procedures in a litigator's toolbox--advocates can still accomplish much on clients' behalf. Social justice litigation remains a potent weapon for change.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related Articles
- John M. Rosenberg, A Call to Public Service (July-Aug. 2010)
- Ross Dolloff, Rediscovering the Organizations We Worked to Invent--How to Build an Environment and Culture that Support Affirmative Advocacy (March-April 2008)
By Brad Seligman
Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act: An Overview of the New Federal Law and Its Application
Tenants residing in foreclosed properties were largely forgotten victims of the foreclosure crisis until the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act was passed in 2009. The Act contains core protections for all “bona fide” tenants and particular protections for those with housing choice vouchers. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and other federal agencies have issued guidance on implementation, and attorneys general in Connecticut and California have moved to enforce the law. Advocates should think creatively about using the Act—a valuable tool in defending postforeclosure evictions—in conjunction with tenant-friendly state and local laws in order to devise a battery of protections for their client tenants.

Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

Related Articles
- Maeve Elise Brown & Lisa Sitkin, Defending Post-Foreclosure Evictions (July-Aug. 2009)
- Lawrence R. McDonough, Minnesota Tenants Gain More Rights in Foreclosure Through Legislative Task Force Collaboration (March-April 2009)
By Samantha M. Tuttle and Kent Qian

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