A little over sixteen months ago, on October 13, 2004, the Constitutional Law & Civil Rights Section held its first ever event - a brown bag lunch featuring a presentation by McGeorge Professor John Sims on Civil Rights and the War on Terrorism. The Section followed that lunch with two more brown bag events, before graduating to "real" lunches at the Firehouse Restaurant in Old Sacramento. In the year-plus since it got underway, the Section has seen its membership swell from nine people to more than fifty practitioners and has hosted almost a dozen informational and social events.

On October 12, 2005, the Section celebrated its one-anniversary with a presentation by Suzanne Ambrose, the Director of the Department of Fair Employment and Housing ("DFEH"). The 45 attorneys and law students who attended that event learned first hand about the DFEH's efforts to help employers comply with sexual harassment training requirements, the most common mistake made by attorneys handling FEHA cases ("not working closely with the DFEH investigator"), and the DFEH's claims handling policies and procedures.

Attendees at other lunch events since the section's inception have had a chance to hear Tim Muscat, the lead attorney in the Attorney General's Civil Rights Enforcement Division, discuss the AG's civil rights initiatives; Jon Adkisson, a partner at Hanson Bridgett Marcus Vlahos Rudy, discuss "Retaliation Claims and Civil Rights Statutes in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education"; and a panel of local practitioners and professors analyze the interplay between the practice and the theory of civil rights law.

In August 2005, the Section hosted a discussion about First Amendment Freedoms, the Press, and Shield Laws which was led by long-time Sacramento Bee reporter Denny Walsh and First Amendment specialist Charity Kenyon.

On November 22, 2005, the Section hosted a lunch where U.S. District Court Magistrate Justice Kimberly J. Mueller discussed "Section 1983 cases, Prisoners, and the Role of Counsel." As a result of that lunch, the Section is now working members of the local Federal judiciary and bar to create a panel or entity that will be able to provide trial counsel to those pro se prisoner litigants who have survived summary judgment.

2006 started with a great presentation by Alan Schlosser, the Legal Director of the ACLU of Northern California, who discussed his organization's role in local civil liberties issues, particularly in regard to the West Sacramento Gang Injunction. By the time this article goes to print the Section will have put on its First Annual "State of Civil Rights" panel presentation, a free MCLE-accredited event where lawyers, judges, and law students, will be able to hear a diverse group of legal minds discuss their impression of the current state of civil rights in the United States. As of printing, the panelists scheduled for that April 5, 2006 event are the Honorable Lawrence K. Karlton (Senior Judge for the Eastern District Court of California), Carter White (Director of the U.C. Davis Prisoner Litigation Clinic), and Sharone Browne (from the Pacific Legal Foundation). On May 4, 2006, we will be happy to welcome Eva Patterson, legal director of the Equal Justice Society, as the speaker at our lunch event.

The Constitutional Law & Civil Rights Section was created to provide a forum for the discussion and dissemination of developments in the related fields of Constitutional Law and Civil Rights, to provide opportunities to earn MCLE credits by attending lectures, discussions, and other events concerning Constitutional Law and Civil Rights, and to encourage interest in Constitutional Law and Civil Rights in the local professional and social community. If you are interested in becoming involved in the Section or have any questions or comments about upcoming events, please contact the Section's Chairperson, Jeff Schwarzschild (tel: 916-443-6911, e-mail: jeff@markmerin.com.)

March / April 2006