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SECTION 702 DATA SEARCHING WHY IS THERE A PRIVACY CONCERN?

A fight over your data has been raging in Congress, and you probably dont even know. Section 702 is a controversial provision that seemingly has allowed for the search of personal information without warrants or protection under the Fourth Amendment.

SECTION 702 DATA SEARCHING

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) grants the government the authority to review and intercept electronic communications of targets unprotected by the Fourth Amendment. This generally means overseas targets, but it has increasingly been alleged to have been used for investigation of American targets.

Raw Section 702 data refers to information and data that naturally flows downstream and through technology giants and Internet companies like Google. This information, which is unredacted, contains all sorts of information on Americans and generally requires extensive permissions to reviewunless youre the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Section 702 of FISA grants the FBI the ability to search such data when it is in connection to foreign threats. Regular audits by the Department of Justice, however, appear to indicate that the FBI regularly searches raw Section 702 data without all the proper authorizations. While these audit reports labeled FBI searches as overly broad and not reasonably likely to yield connections to foreign intelligence, they concluded that FBI agents likely misunderstood search parameters as opposed to searching maliciously.

PRIVACY CONCERNS OVER SECTION 702 DATA REVIEW

On the other side of the debate, however, some privacy activists allege that misuse of Section 702 data by the FBI has been routine, growing, and, at its worst, can lead to surveillance based on race, faith, or political leanings. Some opponents allege that it is standard FBI practice to search raw Section 702 data during investigations and prior to the start as routine background surveillance. And while law requires the FBI to secure a court order in criminal matters, it has been revealed that the FBI has failed to do so in the past. Third-party watchdogs suggest that declassified reports appear to show that the FBI conducts thousands of illegal searches of such data annually.

Section 702 was enacted as part of the 2008 amendments to FISA and is currently set for use until December 31, 2023. As such, Congress is slated to vote at the end of this year to renew it. Partisan debate rages fiercely around the topic, and it behooves privacy counsel and civil rights attorneys to monitor the debate.

KEY TAKEAWAYS ON SECTION 702 DATA SEARCHING

Section 702 of FISA allows the FBI to search through certain, raw, private data under certain circumstances, and some privacy advocates are concerned because:

Section 702 data refers to unredacted information that flows downstream from Internet giants like Google;

It is though that such data may be routinely searched by the FBI without warrants; and

Section 702 of FISA is up for vote/reauthorization by Congress at the end of 2023.

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What is Section 702 Data and Why Are Some Privacy Advocates ... - Lexology

Several students studying abroad at the Universitys Tuscany campus recently visited a local high school with their professor. They interacted with Italian students and learned about the differences and similarities in the American and Italian justice systems.

March 27, 2023

By Rebekah Germain 26, Cole Laubenheimer 26, Dena Lakaj 23, and Alonna Christy 23

Several Chargers studying abroad at the Universitys campus in Prato, Italy, recently visited ITIS Tullio Buzzi High School, a Prato high school focused on science and technology. The school, which generously enables Chargers to use their labs and workspaces, recently welcomed a group of University of New Haven students and their professor, Daniel Maxwell, MPA, for a lesson on criminal justice.

Prof. Maxwell brought a group of his students with him when he visited the school to teach a criminal justice lesson to the high school students. The opportunity enabled the American and Italian students to interact and learn together about their countrys respective justice systems.

During the lesson, the students compared the U.S. Bill of Rights to the rights enumerated in the Italian constitution. They also discussed search warrants and the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Prof. Maxwell ended the lesson showing the students Kahoot!, a fun and interactive game-based learning platform, asking the students questions about American and Italian culture and criminal justice. Students enjoyed competing for prizes University of New Haven swag and applying what theyd learned.

It was like teams competing in the World Cup, said Prof. Maxwell. They had so much fun.

Below, the four students who accompanied Prof. Maxwell reflect on the experience.

Rebekah Germain 26

Although I had originally not planned to study abroad in Italy, as a result of studying abroad, I've had numerous exciting opportunities. One involved Professor Daniel Maxwell and a small group of students visiting a high school in Prato. ITIS Tullio Buzzi High School is a science and technology high school.

By visiting with Professor Maxwell, I was able to interact with the Italian students at this high school on a different level. It also allowed me the chance to observe foreigners' perspectives on America and assess their level of familiarity with the U.S. I believe the high school students would do well in a career in law enforcement because they were quite intelligent and knowledgeable on the subject of criminal justice.

As Professor Maxwell started his presentation, I saw the students' responses and how they interacted with him. While I listened to Professor Maxwell speak, I could tell the students were paying careful attention based on their comments and their enthusiasm for what he had to say.

The Italian students were divided into groups of four after Professor Maxwell finished his presentation, and he asked each of us to visit a group and work on a task with the students. We had two tasks to finish. The first required us to compare and contrast the Italian and American Bills of Rights, which Professor Maxwell had given us. We exchanged thoughts and had a discussion about what the Italian students had discovered regarding similarities and differences.

For the second activity, Professor Maxwell provided us with a scenario involving the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. According to the 4th Amendment, a warrant is required for police to enter our homes and take our personal property. As soon as Professor Maxwell told us the scenario, we all got to work. These students had me mesmerized based on what they were saying. Before making a choice, they genuinely took the time to weigh all of their possibilities.

Our third activity was Kahoot!, an online game-based learning platform. These students were overjoyed when they saw what we were doing. They were ecstatic. Unfortunately, my University of New Haven classmates and I were unable to play Kahoot! because it was meant for Italian students, but it didn't stop us from cooperating as a team. It was surprising to see how accurately they answered the questions about America. Although the teams were fierce rivals, I admired the way they cooperated to find the answers to the problems. Honestly, it was fantastic.

I will always be thankful that I had the opportunity to visit this high school to meet all of these wonderful and clever students. I was able to see things differently and recognize some of the distinctions between Italy and America as a result. It was a real pleasure to work with them on these endeavors. If given the chance, I'd do this again without a doubt.

Cole Laubenheimer 26

I recently accompanied Professor Daniel Maxwell and three other students to ITS Tullio Buzzi di Prato. Professor Maxwell had two students from his Principles of Investigations class, Dena Lakaj and Alonna Christy, and two from his Criminal Law class, Rebekah Germaine and me, visit the local high school to teach the students a little bit about criminal justice, forensics, and investigative services. As anybody who has ever had Professor Maxwell knows, he is a lot of fun.

Everyone was a little nervous about how the language barrier might impact the event, except for Professor Maxwell. He kicked it off with, Ciao! That is the extent of the Italian I know! and then carried on once the laughs died down.

As it turns out, the language barrier was virtually nonexistent, and the Italian students were eager to answer his questions and participate. They were excited to share what they knew about the similarities between our justice systems, tell us about Il Monstro di Firenze, and walk through mock-questioning. Professor Maxwell then told us we would break into groups and do an exercise with each other. This meant the four of us would be split into separate groups with about 15 Italian high schoolers each. Yikes.

When I went over to my group, they were quick to make space for me and introduce themselves. Each of us had a copy of a Bill of Rights. Theirs was the American one and mine was the Italian one. We were instructed to review them and identify the similarities in our rights. We learned that both countries give the right to remain silent, a speedy trial, protection against search and seizure without a warrant, and public assembly. There were two big differences: gun control and capital punishment. The Italian students were shocked at how available legal firearms are in America compared to in Italy. They had never heard of carrying permits, buying ammunition at superstores, or even considering buying one at all.

The student on my left, Lorenzo, explained the process of buying a firearm in Italy to me. He said, to buy a gun in Italy you must go to the local police headquarters and submit an application, then you go through psychological testing and a safety course. I think you can only really get them for sport hunting here.

I told them the restrictions for them in American, and they were shocked. I also learned that they have never had a single active shooter drill in their lives. What really amazed me was how easy it was to get into their school compared to my high school in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

We moved on to talking about the death penalty which was most recently used in 1944 on three Sicilian men for robbery, murder, and battery of 10 people. In 2007, Article 27 of the Italian Constitution completely banned capital punishment. This exercise really taught us a lot about each others countries and allowed us to gain more perspectives on how our laws and rights influence our cultures.

Professor Maxwell had us go through the warrant-request process for a hypothetical crime. The students were able to write a warrant request that included all of the crucial information they needed to be able to go into an apartment to search for stolen cellphones. They knew to be specific on the addresses, include the serial numbers of the phones that were stolen from store inventories, include where they wanted to look, and even proposed a stake out.

We then moved onto Professor Maxwells newfound favorite toy: Kahoot!

To say my group was competitive would be an understatement. The Kahoot! had questions about what Professor Maxwell taught them about criminal justice, the American Bill of Rights, important statistics, the Italian Bill of Rights, and Italian history. At one point, my group had Lorenzo, Giada, Davide, and Giulia all on the leaderboard (I am still very proud of that).

All in all, this was one of the highlights of my study abroad experience, so far. I really enjoyed being able to teach the students about criminal justice. Several students in my group said they had prior interest in this field and that this experience encouraged them to learn more about it. We all learned so much and had fun while doing it, so it didnt even feel like we were doing schoolwork. We went over our allotted time, and it felt like we were only there for 20 minutes. This was an experience I am happy I was a part of.

Dena Lakaj 23

Professor Maxwell, Alonna Christy, Cole Laubenheimer, Rebekah Germain, and I recently visited an Italian high school. During this trip, Professor Maxwell taught criminal investigation. Alonna, Cole, Becky, and I introduced ourselves to the class, talking about our majors and what they entail.

We broke off into four groups where each one of us had our own group to discuss a scenario. The exercise was to come up with what course of action that would take place in the event that cell phones were stolen from inventory and sold.

My group, specifically, discussed tracking the phones themselves. We would plant some sort of GPS device in the phone, so that when it was turned on, we would get a location. This would allow us to gather leads as to where the cellphones were being sold and the person who was selling them. That person is more likely than not to be our thief.

The Italian students (who have become my friends) were very creative in the ways they would handle this situation to get probable cause and a search warrant. The language barrier made it a bit tricky to understand at times, but it was interesting, nonetheless. I learned a lot about how different American students are compared to Italian students. We were told that these students are used to more lecture-type teaching, so it was even more fascinating to see how receptive they were.

The Italian students were especially excited about the Kahoot! that Professor Maxwell made for them. It was almost as if they were watching the Super Bowl, as Professor Maxwell put it. The most fascinating part about that game was that they seemed to know more about the United States rather than their own country. It just shows how America is seen in their eyes, and how it sort of affects them, despite being so far from us. Their English was almost perfect, while my Italian is nowhere near as good as their English.

These students were an amazing group of kids, and I would love to work with/teach them again.

Alonna Christy 23

I greatly enjoyed helping Professor Maxwell teach some of the students at ITIS Tullio Buzzi High School. It was fun interacting with the students and talking about the similarities and differences between the American criminal justice system and the Italian criminal justice system. It was not only a learning opportunity for the students, but for me as well. I would happily attend another class in the future.

Rebekah Germain 26 and Cole Laubenheimer 26 are psychology majors at the University of New Haven. Dena Lakaj 23 and Alonna Christy 23 are criminal justice majors. They are all studying abroad this semester at the Universitys campus in Prato, Italy.

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Chargers Explore Culture and Criminal Justice with Italian High ... - University of New Haven News

The Supreme Court hears a case on March 29 that will test whether there is any real limit to the frighteningly invasive power of the IRS.

In Polselli v. IRS, the high court will resolve a matter of statutory interpretation on which circuit courts have disagreed.

NEGLIGENT IRS MISSES DEADLINE TO ACCOUNT FOR OWN MONEY

The case involves disputes about two complicated, badly written subclauses in the same section of a law governing IRS authority. Although the language is confusing, the question itself is plain. If the IRS is investigating Person A, may the agency rifle through the accounts of others who keep records pertaining to, or doing business with, Person A, without telling those others and without giving them a chance to convince a court to quash the search?

In a more rational legal regime, the Constitutions Fourth Amendment would be directly at issue. The amendment bars law enforcement agencies from warrantless searches of houses, papers, and effects, but the Supreme Court has treated the IRS as something other than law enforcement, ruling in 1964 that the agency need not meet any standard of probable cause to obtain enforcement of [IRS] summons. Never mind that, for ordinary taxpayers, the IRS is just as fearsome as the local sheriff.

A pair of further Supreme Court cases seemed to expand the IRSs summons power too far, so Congress worried the agency could go on what the court called 'fishing expeditions' into the private affairs of bank depositors. In direct response to those decisions, Congress adopted 26 U.S.C. 7609, requiring the IRS at least to give notice to people whose records it is trying to obtain. In doing so, however, Congress created an exception so that the IRS need not inform direct targets of its suspicion, to stop the targets from hiding evidence of wrongdoing in the meantime.

The entire reason Congress created section 7609 was to protect third parties (rather than direct targets) from IRS invasion without notice. Still, the exception it provided is horribly written. Its not just word salad, but word salad blended into a smoothie. The exception says the IRS need not provide notice of summonses issued in aid of the collection of (i) an assessment made or judgment rendered against the person with respect to whose liability the summons is issued; or (ii) the liability at law or in equity of any transferee or fiduciary of any person referred to in clause (i).

Appeals court judges themselves repeatedly said they had trouble making sense of what Congress wrote. Unfortunately, two federal appeals courts ruled that the in aid of language essentially reopens the door for the IRS to search almost anybodys account having any nexus to the targeted persons account, as long as the IRS asserts the third-party search is in aid of its investigatory powers. Again, this is a search without notice to the third party.

Not only do such third-party searches without notice violate the IRSs own published Taxpayer Bill of Rights (right No. 8), but they also pose massive problems for businesses, as laid out in numerous examples in an amicus brief from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, filed against the IRS. To name just one example, an expansive reading of IRS powers could put attorney-client privilege at serious risk if the IRS demands access to an attorneys files as well.

Unlike the other two circuit courts, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (for once) got this matter right. It decided that to read the subsections of section 7609 the way the IRS does would mean that what was intended as a limited exception would swallow the rule itself. Why would Congress create a legal provision to narrow the scope of IRS power and then create a subclause that expands its power beyond even what it had been previously? Of course, thats illogical.

Alas, two of three judges on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled otherwise, which is why the case is now before the Supreme Court. In dissent, conservative Judge Raymond Kethledge offered good sense. He noted that the Supreme Court consistently makes clear that judges should not interpret a statutory provision so as to render superfluous other provisions in the same enactment. To say the exception is bigger than the rule itself obviously would render the rule, and Congresss entire point in section 7609, superfluous. As Kethledge wrote, it would maul the bulk of section 7609.

Enough is enough. The nation was founded on a conception of limited government, with the governors accountable to the people. The IRS, for whatever reason, already is, for most intents and purposes, accountable to almost nobody. In section 7609, Congress quite obviously tried to put at least some guardrails on the agency. For the Supreme Court to allow the IRS to break those guardrails should be anathema.

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Supreme Court should protect third parties from IRS fishing ... - Washington Examiner

More than a week after a U.S. Park Police officer shot and killed District teenager Dalaneo Martin, members of his family said theyve yet to receive official documentation about the encounter that ended Dalaneos life.

As family and friends of Dalaneo, affectionately also known as Debo, continue to demand information about the officers involved, they remain adamant about letting the world know the whole truth about their son, brother and nephew.

Debo was goofy. He could get under your ski, but he would give you his socks [and clothes] off his back, said Dalaneos mother Terra Martin on Sunday at the culmination of a march that started at a Shell gas station on the 3300 block of Benning Road in Northeast and ended on the 300 block of 36th Street where Dalaneo was pronounced dead eight days earlier.

Martin, flanked by Dalaneos siblings, friends, along with his significant other and their infant son, spoke about Dalaneo and his affinity for fashion, video games and swimming.

The grieving mother also recounted her last Facetime conversation with Dalaneo, the night before he was killed, during which he told her that he would pick up his six-month old son, Jordan, from her house in the morning. Since he had his baby, he tried to change his life, Martin said. It was all about Jordan. He has his baby four days out of the week and he was on it.

According to a U.S. Park Police spokesperson, U.S. Park Police officers arrived near 34th Street and Baker Street in Northeast at the behest of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) who received a call about a stolen vehicle.

Soon after arriving at the scene, a U.S. Park Police officer entered the backseat of the car as Dalaneo was sleeping.

Dalaneo woke up and pulled off, allegedly dragging another officer several feet. The car Dalaneo was driving then crashed into a house on the 300 block of 36th Street. Dalaneo, 17, was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities said they recovered a gun in the vehicle.

On Sunday, family members said they learned that the officer in the car with Dalaneo shot him six times, with five of those bullets entering Dalaneos back. They also cited an anonymous witness who said they saw park police officers encroaching on Dalaneo as he was sleeping in the car, and one of them later choking him.

On March 22, four days after Dalaneos death, MPD Chief Robert J. Contee III said that an internal affairs investigation was underway. The findings will go to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia.

The U.S. Park Police didnt return the Informers inquiry about the identity of the officers involved in the shooting.

For family members and friends who spoke about their lost loved one on Sunday, Dalaneos death incited fury about whats been described as the emotionless and callous rhetoric used toward alleged perpetrators of crime who are gunned down by police.

In the days leading up to the march and vigil, other people, including Katrice Fuller-Whitaker, took to social media to speak about the Dalaneo they knew. Years earlier, Fuller-Whitaker and other adults at Monument Academy Public Charter School in Northeast worked with Dalaneo, a special-needs student with a bubbly personality and love for his siblings.

Fuller-Whitaker said Dalaneo showed persistence in the face of housing insecurity and government-mandated separation from his family.

After Dalaneo left Monument Academy PCS, Fuller-Whitaker maintained contact with him and his family. Nearly a year ago, she saw her former student, who expressed interest in applying to a trade program that would equip him with the skills needed to financially support his soon-to-be newborn child.

Fuller-Whitaker told the Informer that, upon learning about Dalaneos death, she pondered why the U.S. Park Police officer who killed him on the morning of March 18 chose not to wake Dalaneo up from his slumber. She said failing to do so triggered the trauma-induced paranoia that Dalaneo had been struggling with throughout his childhood.

As Fuller-Whitaker and her colleagues mull over how to memorialize their former student, she continues to think about the countless other special-needs students who, because of a misunderstanding of their condition, have been funneled into the juvenile justice system or killed by aggressive police officers.

Because were in the population, were thinking of SPED (special education) first, Fuller-Whitaker said.

When a child matriculates [to school] with disabilities that manifest [in different actions,] nobody thinks about how that ends up in a situation when cops shoot first and ask questions later, she added. We are quickly penalizing these children because we dont want to do the work.

Dalaneos death counts among the latest in the string of police-involved killings that have taken place over the last few years.

Last year, MPD shot and killed Kevin Hargraves-Shird and Lazarus Wilson in two separate incidents. In 2021, AnTwan GIlmore, like Dalaneo, was killed by police after they found him sleeping in a car.

During the earlier part of March, MPD Sergeant Enis Jevric was charged with a federal civil rights violation and second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Gilmore.

Months earlier, in October, the U.S Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia had also dismissed 90 gun and drug cases involving seven members of a crime suppression unit who are currently under investigation.

Contee recently told the Informer that improper searchers, what he described as Fourth Amendment violations, only tell part of the story about why cases dont lead to prosecution. He said that there are other situations where victims of crime are unable to properly identify their alleged perpetrator.

However, when officers dont correctly execute searches, MPD confers with the D.C. Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the U.S Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia to identify opportunities for retraining.

Meanwhile, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), Contee and leaders of other local agencies have collaborated to expand the presence of District police at Metro stations and nightlife corridors.

Much to the chagrin of local activists, some D.C. council members have followed suit with the introduction of legislation that reverses the reduction of school resource officers, increases the local police force and creates economic incentives for police officers.

Bowsers FY 2024 budget proposal also allocates funds for an additional 200 officers.

In this climate, some activists, like April Goggans, said that she and her comrades face an uphill battle in rallying support for victims of police-involved shootings.

Earlier this year, Alaunte Scott, a 22-year-old Black man, faced a fate similar to Dalaneo during a situation involving local and federal law enforcement officers. During an on-foot pursuit in February, officers of the U.S. Marshals Service shot and killed Scott on the 4300 block of 3rd Street in Southeast.

In a statement, MPD said that Scott wielded a firearm during the chase, which compelled officers to shoot him.

In the aftermath of Scotts deadly encounter with U.S. Marshals and MPD, Scotts family members hosted a vigil and balloon release at Ft. Dupont Park in Southeast. They later protested in front of D.C. Superior Court on Indiana Avenue in Northwest in demand of accountability for the police officer who shot and killed Scott.

All the while, Goggans, a core organizer with Black Lives Matter DC, has counted among those whove stood on the front lines in solidarity with Scotts family.

Over the last decade, Goggans and her comrades some of whom have since formed other groups have made similar moves on behalf of other Black people shot and killed by local and federal police forces in the District.

While there had been much enthusiasm for the cause in the aftermath of George Floyds 2020 murder, Goggans noted the increasing difficulty these days in garnering local support for those who die during encounters with MPD.

She said that people who are frustrated and desperate for immediate solutions for violent crime often have not only dismissed victims of police-involved deaths as troublemakers deserving of their fate, but fallen victim to talking points circulated by Bowser and Contee.

The word that comes out of Mayor Bowser and Chief Contees mouths is guns, Goggans said as she described what she called Bowser and Contees strategy to avoid public scrutiny. People assume that if a person got shot, they deserved it; they were doing something they werent supposed to do. Theres no vigil that the community comes to for people killed by police. Its just families and activists, she added.

Its rarely folks who live in D.C. Even if they do come to the vigil, they likely wont come to the protest. Its wild to me because if youre a Black person born and raised in D.C., you know there are jump outs and things that have been happening for generations.

With Congress recent bipartisan takedown of the Revised Criminal Code Act and ongoing efforts by House GOP members to reverse local police accountability measures, Goggans said that Black residents rights have been further jeopardized.

Thats why Goggans has her sights set on educating residents about how the infusion of local and federal police negatively affects majority-Black communities. She said she wants to build an infrastructure that includes a large number of community members who are immediately and continuously responsive to acts of police brutality.

For Goggans, its a matter of countering Bowser, Contee and the rise of an ultraconservative, pro-police constituency that wants to penalize Black people.

Chief Contee and Mayor Bowser are banking on people grieving and people scared as a result of community violence so they can have the same talking points and push out harmful stuff, she said. Theres a moral dilemma [people have] that if theyre fighting police violence, that somehow theyre saying that community violence is not important.

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Family Members Challenge Narrative About Teenager Slain by Park ... - The Washington Informer

In 2019, someone called the police on Elijah McClain a 23-year-old Black man from Aurora, Colorado because they thought he looked sketchy wearing a ski mask in August. McClain had anemia, which caused him to feel cold even in warm weather.

Though he was doing nothing wrong, the police subdued him with a dose of ketamine that proved fatal. The story is an encapsulation, according to Jamelia Morgan, of what happens far too often when people of color with disabilities encounter law enforcement.

Race and disability should not become pathways to police violence, she said. Thats at the core of our agenda: preventing a confluence of racism and ableism from impacting the day-to-day lives of people, especially people of color with disabilities.

Morgan, a professor at Northwesterns Pritzker School of Law, recently launched the Center for Racial and Disability Justice (CRDJ), which will promote justice for people of color, people with disabilities and people at the intersection of those identities.

In an interview with Northwestern Now, Morgan describes her motivation for founding the center, explains the relationship between race and disability and lays out her vision for the centers work going forward: Im excited about the possibility of powerful and effective collaboration with Chicagos rich ecosystem of activists and organizations to enact change, she says.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in law?

I grew up in Los Angeles in the early 1990s; I was seven when Rodney King was beaten by LAPD officers, spurring the LA uprisings. My interest in being a lawyer stems from some of the social movements of that period and their focus on policing and Black communities. Its sobering, of course, to note that were still dealing with many of the same issues.

As a Black woman, I also had family members who were impacted by the criminal legal system. To me, lawyers seemed to be the only people with a handle on that system who were able to secure justice in some cases. So, after growing up amid injustice, I had a desire to use the law as a means of responding to community harm.

What led you to found the CRDJ?

Before law school, I read Michelle Alexanders book, The New Jim Crow. That book gave voice to things that Id experienced regarding people caught up in the criminal justice system; its impact within Black communities; and the racial caste system in America. So, from my first days practicing law, I was thinking about the barriers and injustices that my clients were facing.

In law school, I participated in legal clinics that gave me the chance to defend clients for the first time. We interviewed and filed lawsuits on behalf of a number of individuals with disabilities who were incarcerated in Connecticut under conditions that failed to meet their medical and mental health needs, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

That work sparked my interest in disability law and inspired me to take a class on the topic, which opened a whole new perspective on anti-discrimination law. That became the framework which continues to inform my work today.

Why do you see disability justice, criminal justice and racial justice as intertwined?

The intersection stems from a combination of public policy that has failed low-income people with disabilities and the criminalization of mental illness. For decades, there has been a lack of investment in a robust healthcare system and infrastructure to meet the needs of people with chronic health conditions like mental health needs who cant afford quality healthcare.

When people lack support systems, they often end up in emergency situations where they need crisis care services. This often leads them to encounter police officers instead of trained mental health personnel. Many of the people who have been killed in encounters with law enforcement have had psychiatric diagnoses or disabilities.

Finally, we know that theres both a lack of investment and an over policing problem in many Black and Latinx communities. So, people of color with disabilities are disproportionately likely to have encounters with law enforcement for multiple reasons. This is incredibly troubling.

When you think about stories like Elijah McClains, what broader issues do you see at play?

This story illustrates what happens so often to Black men with disabilities: Theyre marginalized in two different ways. Its imperative that we think about how Black men are rendered vulnerable to policing, and why their identity is constructed as threatening, confrontational or noncompliant. Disability can result in non-normative expressions and behaviors which are in turn constructed as a basis for criminalization. In McClains case, there were clear violations of the Fourth Amendment, but we need to think broadly about the pathways that led to his killing.

Why do you feel its appropriate and important to have the center here in Chicago?

Chicago has a very rich history of organizing for Black movements. Its been the home of many leading racial justice organizations that have been thinking critically about the intersection of law and social change for decades, including important work to combat police violence. The disability rights movement has also always had a home here, with some leading organizations headquartered in the city.

Efforts are underway here to redirect law enforcement away from mental health crisis situations and instead have trained mental health personnel respond to reduce the risk of violence. Much work remains to be done in this and other areas, such as expanding the ability of people with disabilities to live independently. Many institutionalized disabled people who could live independently in the community are still fighting for the ability to do so via lawsuits. Im excited about what we can accomplish on these issues by working with community partners.

Where are you hoping to take the center over the next few years?

For now, weve kept our vision broad: Were interested in tackling all issues at the intersection of racial and disability justice in a way that promotes human thriving for all people of color. Were currently developing our strategic priorities, a process that I hope will incorporate community voices. But in our first year, were going to focus on three specific areas.

The first is crisis care. Because of the criminalization of disability, and psychiatric disabilities in particular, we need better ways of responding when people experience mental health crises. Well be weighing in with policy briefs and legal scholarship in that area.

The second area is healthcare discrimination. Were working with a team of terrific doctors at the Feinberg School of Medicine on research dealing with ableism and disability-based discrimination in healthcare settings. Implicit bias can affect the provision of services, so well be working on ways to develop more inclusive clinics. For example, we can educate and raise awareness among instructors through things like licensing or educational requirements.

The third and final area of focus is access to the courts. Well conduct research and develop technical manuals to support the creation of accessible courtrooms where not only criminal defendants, but civil litigants are able to access and understand court documents. The physical space of the court also needs to be accessible to all persons with disabilities. Were looking for a jurisdiction that will allow us to use one courthouse as the demonstration site for an inclusive and accessible courtroom experience.

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Preventing racism and ableism from impacting people's daily lives - Northwestern Now