At the start of the fall semester, the Law School inaugurated its Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Clinic, led by Clinical Professor of Law G.S. Hans, widely known for his scholarship in free speech, technology law, and legal ethics. Students in the clinic engage in civil litigation, policy, and advocacy, working with clients to protect and promote individual rights and liberties, with a special focus on free speech.
“Gautam Hans is a talented lawyer and a national voice in clinical education,” says Beth Lyon, who oversees Cornell Law’s twenty-five clinics and practicum courses as associate dean for experiential education, clinical professor of law, and clinical program director. “For students who are interested in federal litigation and federal courts, it’s exciting to have him start this clinic, which closely reflects the kind of impact work they’ll see when they head into practice.”
In its first project, a referral from Ian Kysel, assistant clinical professor of law, the clinic submitted an appeal in Sánchez Gonzalez v. Department of State, arguing on behalf of a long-term California resident who was refused re-entry to the United States because of the images—the Virgen de Guadalupe, masks of comedy and tragedy, and the Aztec calendar—tattooed on his body. Working with Nelson Tebbe, Jane M.G. Foster Professor of Law, the clinic has drafted an amicus brief supporting the state of Colorado in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, supporting the Colorado Universal Preschool Program’s requirement that schools admit students regardless of a child’s gender identity or the sexual orientation of their parents.
In a third project, carried over from Hans’ previous work in the First Amendment Clinic, the new clinic works with EveryLibrary, a nationwide nonprofit that helps public libraries, school libraries, and librarians defend themselves against book bans and threats of closures, defunding, and firings.
As the founder of the Civil Rights Clinic, Hans focuses on training the program’s ten students to think creatively about the law and the interests of their real-life clients, using the First Amendment in support of social justice. Clients without political power, like Sánchez Gonzalez, a father kept from seeing his American wife and three American sons, exemplify inequities in the American legal system. Through their clinical experience, students are expected to think critically about case law, advocate strategically for their clients in legal briefs and memos, and understand more about their identity as lawyers and the legal careers they plan to pursue.
“The values of what we do as a clinic, helping individuals who have legal needs and helping make good law for the broader population, is central to our lives as lawyers and law students,” says Hans, who received the American Association of Law Schools’ M. Shanara Gilbert Emerging Clinician Award earlier this year. “This isn’t just about the cerebral nature of the First Amendment. It’s about defending the individual clients that the First Amendment is designed to protect. That’s what we’re trying to instill through this clinic.”
