2022 Grantees Participate In Case Update Telephone Conversations
The Barbara McDowell Foundation monitors its grants to ensure that the funds granted by the Foundation are used as agreed upon by the social justice organization in their grant agreement with the Foundation and serve as an assurance to potential donors that their contributions to the Foundation are making an impact.
All five 2022 Grantees participated in telephone calls with Foundation President, Jerry Hartman, and Vice-President, Peggy Zwisler, which took place in February 2022. All grantees reported that their cases are proceeding. One of the grantees, Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, indicated that their submitted reports reflected their work during the First Quarter.
Children’s Legal Center (CLC) shared the update since its originally submitted First Quarter written report stating that their case has been filed in the Northern District of Illinois – Case No. 1:22-cv-00774. This litigation will affect asylum-seeking clients across the country. First, CLC has gathered evidence to show that confiscation of documents is happening on a national scale. Some clients reported that Customs and Border Patrol has taken their documents, others reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confiscated documents at the detention center, while other clients reported that ICE confiscated documents at check-ins.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) suggested an addition to its originally submitted First Quarter written report. That revision stated that Equal Rights Washington represented by NCLR and the State of Washington had filed their appellate briefs on January 14, 2022, and that five amicus briefs had been filed, as well, supporting NCLR’s position with respect to the challenge by an individual to the state law prohibiting the efforts by state-licensed therapists to change the sexual orientation of minors.
New Economy Project, another grantee, advised that it is continuing to work on its appellate brief challenging the lower court’s decision to fail to vacate a default judgment against its client who never knew that she had been sued for failure to pay a debt resulting in her wages being garnished. This precedential case challenges unwarranted discretion by New York State Courts to refuse to vacate default judgments entered without personal jurisdiction and equating a sustained period of involuntary payments with waive of one’s personal jurisdiction defense. New Economy Project is still waiting a decision on a stay of the enforcement of the default judgment pending appeal.
National Center for Youth Law also shared an update to its original First Quarter report. It states that with the help of a mediator the parties had continued to pursue settlement discussions while simultaneously engaging in discovery. The case involves putting foster children in the State of Washington in hotels and offices overnight while seeking placements and also putting disadvantaged foster children, those with behavioral health and development disabilities, in restrictive and isolating facilities out of state. A bench trial in the case is set for October 4, 2022.