Louisiana Voice

The Louisiana ACLU has launched one of the most ambitious PROGRAMS ever to combat police misconduct, harassment and violence in the state, according to an announcement by Nora Ahmed, ACLU of Louisiana legal director.

The initiative, called “Justice Lab: Putting Racist Policing on Trial,” has thus far enlisted the PARTICIPATION of 39 prestigious law firms from 14 states, the District of Columbia and London.

Only Three of the law firms are from Louisiana. They are Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver and Kuchler Polk Weiner of New Orleans, and Kutcher Tygier & Luminais of Metairie. None are from Baton Rouge.

Other cities represented are Miami, Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Seattle and Columbia, S.C.

Southern University Law Center’s Externship Program and Tulane Law School’s Civil Rights & Federal Practice Clinic are among 18 law schools and clinics from 12 states and the District of Columbia that are taking part in the intensive litigation program.

LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law School in Baton Rouge and Loyola Law School in New Orleans are conspicuously absent from the list of law schools and clinics from places like Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio and Colorado who have enrolled in the project.

The objective of the campaign is to “unleash a wave of lawsuits intended to hold police accountable for unconstitutional misconduct and (to) stop racially discriminatory policing,” Ahmed said. By focusing intensive efforts on a single state, she said, the initiative hopes to “establish a litigation blueprint for altering police conduct across the country.”

“For centuries, law enforcement officers have brutalized Black communities with near – with justice coming too late or not at all,” said Alanah Odoms Hebert, ACLU of Louisiana executive director. “A dearth of lawsuits challenging these unconstitutional abuses has exacerbated this crisis, compounding the systemic racism that pervades our criminal legal system and allowing these practices to continue unchecked.

“Often, police are only held accountable after we witness gut-wrenching images of people of color being subjected to intense brutality,” she said. “Justice Lab aspires to hold police accountable for every instance of unconstitutional conduct to the extend the law allows.”

She said as efforts continue to fight racism, “Justice Lab will complement these efforts by unleashing a wave of litigation to hold police accountable.”

So, why Louisiana as the target for the pilot program?

Several reasons, really:

Louisiana has the largest ratio of police officers to residents of any state in the US and, perhaps coincidentally, has the highest incarceration rate in a nation that has the highest incarceration rate among civilized nations in the world, thus making Louisiana’s incarceration rate highest in the world.

Louisiana law allows police to expunge any alleged violation of criminal battery and assault involving domestic violence from personnel files if formal complaints are made anonymously or were not substantiated within 12 months, meaning police misconduct goes largely unchecked, making Louisiana a microcosm of the structural flaws that plague the nation’s criminal justice system, Odoms-Hebert said.

Louisiana has a long tradition of abuses of Blacks as evidenced by recent events in IBERIA, JEFFERSON DAVIS, JEFFERSON, ORLEANS and other parishes as well as in municipalities like VILLE PLATTE and HAMMOND.

Victims of unconstitutional police misconduct may not understand how to vindicate their rights, or may not have the financial resources to retain counsel.

That’s why the Louisiana ACLU has rolled out its four-part plan:

First, law firms, law school clinics and local community organizations and activists will be recruited, an effort already well underway.

Second, a social media call will go out for up to 1,000 plaintiffs in Louisiana to come forward and challenge perceived unconstitutional stops and seizures which have occurred over the past nine months.

Third, a police misconduct deterrence campaign will be spearheaded which will encourage the public to record any police encounter they witness involving a police stop.

Fourth, the ALCU and legal volunteers will organize the receipt and dissemination of cases across network participants.

As a culmination of those four steps, law firms will spearhead legal challenges to racially-motivated stops and seizures under the Fourth and 14^th Amendments, as well as any other applicable laws.

“If each law firm agrees to take up to 10 legal actions, we can accommodate up to 1,000 cases, Odom-Hebert said.

“We can, and must, do more to stop the police misconduct, harassment and violence that far too often leads to the deaths of innocent people of color,” she said.

“By focusing critical law firm and law school resources on a single state …the ACLU of Louisiana can help establish a litigation blueprint geared toward altering police conduct that every other state in the nation can follow.”

Participating law firms to date are:

• Akerman, Miami
• Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Washington D.C.
• Alston & Bird, Atlanta
• BakerHostetler, Cleveland
• Ballard Spahr, Philadelphia
• Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver, New Orleans
• Boies Schiller Flexner, New York City
• Cohen & Gresser, New York City and Washington, D.C.
• Cooley, Palo Alto, Calif.
• Covington & Burling, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, C.C.
• Dorsey & Whitney, Minneapolis
• Durie Tangri, San Francisco
• Fish & Richardson, Boston
• Foley Hoag, Boston and New York City
• Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London
• Gilbert, Washington, D.C.
• Holwell Shuster & Goldberg, New York City
• King & Spalding, Atlanta
• Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago
• Kuchler Polk Weiner, New Orleans
• Kutcher Tygier & Luminais, Metairie
• Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Philadelphia
• Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, Columbia, S.C.
• Norton Rose Fulbright, New York City, Houston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C.
• Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, San Francisco
• Perkins Coie, Seattle
• Proskauer Rose, New York City
• Reid Collins & Tsai, New York City, Austin, Dallas, Washington, D.C.
• Roche Cyrulnik Freedman, New York City, Miami
• Sidley Austin, Chicago
• Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, New York City
• Steptoe & Johnson, Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco
• Sullivan & Cromwell, New York City
• Susman Godfrey, New York City, Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle
• Anthony Cecutti, New York City
• Jennifer R. Louis-Jeune, New York City
• Venable, Washington, D.C.
• Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, New York City
• Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Palo Alto

Participating legal clinics include:

• Boston University School of Law’s Clinical and Experiential Programs
• Cardozo Law’s Civil Rights Clinic, New York City
• Denver Law’s Civil Rights Clinic
• Fordham Law School’s Federal Litigation Clinic, New York City
• Georgetown Law’s Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic, Washington, D.C.
• Howard University School of Law’s Criminal Justice Clinic, Washington, D.C.
• New York University School of Law’s Civil Rights Clinic
• The Ohio State university Moritz College of Law’s Civil Clinic, Columbus, Ohio
• Penn Law’s Appellate Advocacy Clinic, Philadelphia
• Penn State Law’s Civil Rights Appellate Clinic, University Park, PA.
• Seton Hall School of Law’s Center for Social Justice, Orange, N.J.
• Southern University Law Center’s Externship Program, Baton Rouge
• Tulane Law School’s Civil Rights & Federal Practice Clinic, New Orleans
• University of California-Irvine School of Law’s Critical Race Lawyering Civil Rights Clinic
• University of Georgia School of Law’s Appellate Clinic, Athens, GA.
• University of Texas Law School’s Supreme Court Clinic, Austin, TX.
• William & Mary Law School’s Appellate & Supreme Court Clinic, Williamsburg, VA.