Kary Moss ’87. She led the ACLU of Michigan when the Flint water crisis seeped into public consciousness, supporting grassroots organizing in its most fundamental form. She worked alongside RBG as a staff attorney for the Justice’s Women’s Rights Project. And now she has returned to NYC as the ACLU’s new Director of Affiliate Support and Nationwide Initiatives.
The Equality and Justice Clinic is a training ground for civil rights litigators. The clinic is offered either as an in-house clinic with direct client representation or as a practice clinic with externship placements. The substantive area studied is Section 1983—our nation’s core civil rights statute and the most critical tool we have to hold the government accountable for violating our constitutional rights. Students will learn firsthand how to apply constitutional law and civil rights statutes, how to navigate the procedural barriers that exist for civil rights plaintiffs in court, and how to use the litigation process not just as its own end—but as a tool of pressure and a platform to campaign for policy change. Students complete the clinic learning real litigation skills they can bring to the fight for social justice.
The in-house clinic maintains a docket of impact cases where students will directly litigate federal civil rights challenges. Cases will address issue areas such as police and prosecutorial accountability, voting rights, race and poverty discrimination, free speech and protest, and the rights of incarcerated people. Students will learn how to design new civil rights cases, conduct discovery, negotiate with opposing counsel, and draft and argue motions in court. We also encourage students to reflect on the role that our litigation can play in the community and organizer-led campaigns we join.
Litigation tasks and substantive areas of law will vary by semester based on the status of cases on the docket. In Fall 2025, the clinic expects to file a Fourth Amendment pattern and practice lawsuit against a Texas police department in collaboration with the National Police Accountability Project. We also expect to co-counsel with the NYCLU on active constitutional litigation against local government actors here in New York.
The practice clinic will offer students the opportunity to find an externship at a civil rights, labor organization or other social justice institution—working directly in the field with that organization for the duration of the semester. Through this array of social justice field placements, students work with civil rights or labor lawyers in New York City for two days a week, litigating and advocating on behalf of clients to dismantle oppressive systems.
Students in the practice clinic also participate in a classroom seminar, which includes simulated lawyering exercises and “rounds” where the students discuss legal and ethical issues from their placements. Through the simulations, students collaborate in lawyering exercises such as developing the facts of a case, drafting legal memoranda, preparing discovery plans, and conducting examinations in a trial-like setting.
