Co-signed Amicus Briefs

FVAP co-signed friend-of-the-court (amicus) briefs in the following cases, which were decided in favor of the party FVAP supported.  These cases can be cited in trial court.

Dollar General Corporation v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (2016) 136 S.Ct. 2159. 

An equally divided U.S. Supreme Court (4-4) affirmed, without opinion, a Fifth Circuit ruling (Dollar General Corp. v. Mississippi Board of Choctaw Indians (5th Cir. 2014) 732 F.3d 409) that American Indian Nations’ tribal courts have jurisdiction to decide civil cases involving non-tribal members’ activities on tribal lands.  FVAP co-signed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, authored by the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, supporting the authority of tribal courts to exercise civil jurisdiction over non-Natives who commit acts of abuse or sexual assault on tribal lands.

C.S. v. W.O. (2014) 230 Cal.App.4th 23. 

Borrowing money to expedite transcripts for appeal is not basis to revoke fee waiver when person is on public benefits; denial of fee waiver is denial of access to courts for impermissible reason.

Lozano v. Alvarez (2014) 134 S.Ct. 1224. 

U.S. Supreme Court held there is no equitable tolling defense in a Hague Convention case seeking to return a child to a foreign country based on concealment of the child.  In a brief citing the work of FVAP Advisory Board member Jeffrey Edleson at length, amici curiae, including FVAP as co-signer, argued that concealment is often necessary because the majority of parents who take children out of the country are women fleeing domestic violence.

Ermini v. Vittori (2d Cir. 2014) 758 F.3d 153. 

Father’s history of repeated abuse of both the mother and their children constituted a “grave risk” of harm to the children under the Hague Convention) (co-signed amicus brief)