The Fight for Justice in Housing Court: From the Bronx to a Right to Counsel for all New York City Tenants

https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/impact_center/1016/thumbnail.jp

The Fight for Justice in Housing Court: From the Bronx to a Right to Counsel for all New York City Tenants

https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/impact_center/1016/thumbnail.jp

The Role of Unions Today in the U.S.: Who Benefits?

Before beginning my studies at SIT, I had worked only in non-profits, first as advocate for domestic violence victims in New York and then with an Indigenous Rights organization in Kenya. I left both jobs frustrated with the direct service nature of the work. After studying at SIT and in an effort to do something other than direct service work, I worked with UNITE HERE (UH) in Puerto Rico (PR) as a union organizer. Unions are popularly thought of as movements by, for and with workers that exist not just to ease the suffering of people, but also to create solidarity and build critical consciousness among workers so that they have the power to make decisions about their workplace, so that they claim justice. However, I found myself having similar frustrations with the union as I did with the non-profits I had worked for, because similar to non-profits, UH and many of the larger US unions are reformist organizations. That is, they believe that that the economic and political system in which we live is basically good, that things will change with a new administration, more power, better training, resources and technology. This paper investigates the logic of labor unions, their potential, and their role in the US today. It analyzes the larger political, economic and social context of capitalism in which the labor unions, and those working within them, exist. Through case studies, interviews, surveys, research and personal experience, this paper investigates a fundamental question and its consequences that all social justice workers confront—should we work to re-form pre-existing institutions or do we work to create new ones

Justice for All: Moving Toward Civil Gideon in New York

The right to an attorney in a criminal proceeding was firmly established by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, in 1963. The United States has lagged in establishing the right to counsel in the civil arena. In 2016, the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index for Civil Justice ranked the United States 28 out of the 113 countries assessed, due in part to deficient accessibility and affordability of civil justice. The quest for the right to counsel in civil cases, or “Civil Gideon,” has inched forward in the state of New York in New York City housing cases. This accomplishment is the result of many hands: community members, community organizers, attorneys and elected officials. This panel will explore whether Civil Gideon is fundamental to ensuring justice in the civil arena. The panel will also discuss the Universal Access to Counsel Program in New York City Housing Court and the community-based effort that spurred the New York City Council and the mayor of New York to fund this unprecedented multimillion-dollar effort. Co-sponsored by the Asian-Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA), the Black Law Students Association (BLSA), the Latino/a American Law Students Association (LALSA), Phi Alpha Beta, the Public Justice Foundation, and the South Asian Law Student Association (SALSA)