National Forum On Judicial Accountability
Current NJCDLP Projects:
NFOJA is a legislative
initiative to vest
randomly selected,
trained, and rotating
panels of private
citizens with
responsibility for state
judicial disciplinary
processes.
Learn More
Organizations Associating for the Kind of Change America Really Needs
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OAK is a national
coalition of grassroots
advocates.
Learn More
POPULAR Power Over Poverty Under Laws of America Restored
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POPULAR (formerly POPULAR, Inc.) is a legal
reform organization, focusing on civil and
criminal justice system issues. Learn More
In The Official End of Judicial Accountability Through Federal Rights Litigation:
Ashcroft v. Iqbal*, NJCDLP co-founder and Board member, Zena Crenshaw-Logal,
describes the impact of a 2009, U.S. Supreme Court decision on lawsuits alleging
judicial collusion to deny equal protection:
With Iqbal there is not even a theoretical opportunity to establish through
discovery an otherwise covert judicial conspiracy. As of Iqbal, a viable
lawsuit simply cannot begin on that basis. And those cases dangling
between covert and overt judicial conspiracies to deny equal protection mark
for many if not most attorneys the gravesite of their careers. 'The punishment
imposed for impugning judicial reputation has often been severe, with
suspension from the practice of law not uncommon and, in at least one state,
mandatory.'
The case she references is Ashcroft v. Iqbal**. It has been described as a tool for
promptly clearing highly subjective, contentious, arguably anti-establishment claims
from court dockets. One author writes, “(d)etermining who is allowed to invoke the
machinery of the civil justice system, and under what circumstances they may do so,
lies at the core of how a system of law defines itself.”***
So, for now, NJCDLP limits its activities to overseeing three (3) projects, showcased
and accessible on the right of this screen. They are National Forum On Judicial
Accountability (NFOJA); OAK (Organizations Associating for the Kind of Change
America Really Needs); and POPULAR (Power Over Poverty Under Laws of America
Restored).
Learn More:
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* 35:1 Am. J. Trial Advoc. (forthcoming), presently available at http://works.bepress. | | com/zena_crenshaw-logal/1/ ** 129 S.Ct. 1937 (2009). ***Rachlinski, Jeffrey J. “Iqbal and the Role of the Courts: Why Heightened Pleading—Why Now?”, 114 Penn St. Law Review 1247 (Spring 2010)
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