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It has been an eventful few months here at ICAP! We are thrilled to have scored two major victories for court transparency. Just last week, the Fourth Circuit reversed a lower court’s dismissal of our First Amendment challenge to a Maryland rule that bars broadcasting the recordings of criminal court proceedings—even recordings provided by the court itself! The rule impacts journalists and others who simply seek to use official court recordings in documentaries, podcasts, and other publicly available materials. And since May, after withdrawing an appeal of ICAP's win in the district court, Pennsylvania court administrators are obligated to either provide court-produced records of bail hearings in Philadelphia to members of the public or allow them to audio-record the hearings, paving the way for bail-reform advocates to access critical data that will help them hold judges and prosecutors accountable.
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ICAP continues to stand up for vulnerable populations too. When the governor of South Carolina declined to mount a full defense of a state constitutional provision designed to safeguard funding for public school districts by prohibiting public funds from being diverted to benefit private-school students, ICAP jumped in. We’re proud to represent the South Carolina NAACP and a local public school district in their effort to intervene in a lawsuit to defend the state’s “no-aid” provision. And earlier this month, ICAP’s advocacy for a teenage girl who had been subjected to humiliating and emotionally degrading treatment by church elders after she was raped by a fellow church member resulted in a favorable decision in the Utah Supreme Court, which reversed a lower court opinion dismissing her case against the elders on Establishment Clause grounds. We look forward to helping our client continue to press her claim in the trial court.
ICAP also remains a leader in the fight against domestic violent extremism, including from unlawful private militias. In May, ICAP’s Executive Director, Mary McCord, testified about the militia extremist threat and potential federal legislation to address it before the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Recognition of the threat was also a prominent part of the White House’s just-released National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, about which Mary expounded on PBS Newshour. The strategy was the result of the work of ICAP's former Executive Director, Josh Geltzer, in his new role as Special Assistant to the President & Special Advisor to the Homeland Security Advisor on Countering Domestic Violent Extremism.
Finally, we are excited to announce that, after working with ICAP on a pro bono basis for several months, Kelsi Brown Corkran has officially joined the team as our first Supreme Court Director, focusing on civil rights and criminal justice matters. Already, Kelsi contributed to ICAP’s recent amicus brief in the Supreme Court in Thompson v. Clark, which we filed on behalf of 70 current and former prosecutors and attorneys general, former U.S. Department of Justice officials, and former judges. The issue in Thompson is whether, after an individual's criminal charges are dismissed, he can bring a civil rights action challenging the charges as unfounded. Our brief explains that the rule currently in place in most circuits imposes an unfair burden on individuals whose charges are dismissed before trial in comparison to those who obtain a favorable termination of their case after trial. The Supreme Court will hear argument in Thompson in the fall.
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Keep up with ICAP on Twitter via @GeorgetownICAP; and suggest what we should take on next via reachICAP@georgetown.edu.
With thanks for your continued support, The ICAP Team
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