News

Minnesota Lawyer has announced that the litigation team that achieved a victory at the U.S. Supreme Court this past June in the case of Mellouli v. Holder will be among the magazine’s 2015 Attorneys of the Year honorees. The team consisted of faculty and students from the Law School’s Center for New Americans; pro bono lawyers from the firm of Faegre Baker Daniels; and attorneys from the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.

The New Yorker magazine published a profile this week of Nelson Kargbo, a refugee and former child soldier from Sierra Leone who was successfully represented in his immigration case by law students with the Law School’s Center for New Americans, in partnership with Dorsey & Whitney and ACLU-MN.

The board of directors of the Minneapolis-based Robina Foundation has awarded generous grants of support to three important, ongoing initiatives at the Law School: the Robina Public Interest Scholars Program; the Bridge Fellowship Program; and the research being conducted by the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice into sentencing law and policy.

Kerry McGuire, who is on track to graduate from the Law School next May, has been awarded a two-year postgraduate fellowship through Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit organization whose mission is “mobilizing the next generation of lawyers committed to equal justice.” McGuire will spend her fellowship term working with the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM) to create medical-legal partnerships with health clinics in rural Minnesota, with the aim of increasing immigrants’ access to legal aid.

Andrea Crumrine, who expects to receive her J.D. from the Law School next May, has been awarded a two-year postgraduate fellowship through Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit organization whose mission is “mobilizing the next generation of lawyers committed to equal justice.” During the term of the fellowship, Crumrine will work at Americans for Immigrant Justice in Miami, representing detained asylum seekers in immigration court, before the Board of Immigration Appeals, in federal district court, and potentially in federal circuit court.

Human Rights Educators USA announced today that Kristi Rudelius-Palmer, co-director of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center (HRC), is the recipient of the 2015 Edward O’Brien Award for Human Rights Education. The award was made during the annual conference of the National Council for the Social Studies in New Orleans.

Established in memory of Ed O’Brien, pioneer human rights educator, the O’Brien Award honors an outstanding contribution to human rights education in the United States.

Professor Mark Kappelhoff today received the prestigious U.S. Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service from Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The award—the highest given by the Justice Department for employee performance—honors Kappelhoff for his instrumental role in the civil rights investigation of the police department in Ferguson, Mo., following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. 

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s argument against judicial activism is straightforward. As an unelected judge he—and his eight colleagues on the nation’s highest court—shouldn’t be making laws.

“What are you, crazy?” he asked a capacity crowd of about 2,600 people at Northrop Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus on Tuesday. “Are you going to let this group of people determine what the Constitution is? It’s so unrepresentative of this country. It’s so undemocratic.”

Nelson Kargbo, a refugee from Sierra Leone was finally released from his prolonged detention this week. Earlier this week, Magistrate Judge Brisbois issued his report and recommendation to release Kargbo. Kargbo had been held for over two years by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota. Despite the fact that he was granted protection under the United Nation’s Convention against Torture on July 30, 2015, ICE did not release him immediately.

The J.D. class of 2018 gathered in Mondale Hall at 8 a.m. on Sept. 1 for the start of their Law School orientation. The next three days would be a whirlwind of introductions, briefings, and overviews interwoven with legal writing sessions, faculty visits, technology training, a class photo, an ice cream social, and, of course, the Great Law School Scavenger Hunt (a great way to begin learning to find one's way around).