Today an uncountable number of women and men are participating in the One Billion Rising V-Day Movement, a women’s rights effort organized to highlight the fact that violence against women persists to a saddening degree. Playwright Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) has called for a revolution today and passionate people worldwide have responded. Flash mobs and interpretive dances abound, choreographed to original... [Read More]
This is a big week for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), legislation that has had a hard time in Congress recently. Originally passed in 1994, VAWA provides critical care, support and shelter for those suffering from domestic violence. Though technically still in place and funded, VAWA legislation has expired and is in need of congressional re-authorization. VAWA has already been expanded twice. It came up against... [Read More]
The 2nd annual Female Veterans Stand Down, held on the USC campus on Friday, July 20, was a great success! Thank you to all who volunteered and provided resources and services. Our legal partners included: Bet Tzedek Harriet Buhai Center for Family Law Homeboy Industries, Inc. Inner City Law Center Law Project of Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles Levitt & Quinn Family Law Center Los Angeles County... [Read More]
In a huge victory for girls playing high school sports, on February 9, 2012, San Diego District Court Judge James M. Lorenz ruled that the Sweetwater Union High School District violatedTitle IX by unfairly favoring boys’ sports over girls’ sports at Castle Park High School (“CPHS”) by giving the boys better athletic facilities, resources and opportunities. The Court also found that the administration retaliated... [Read More]
CWLC hosted its annual event on Thursday, May 26, 2011. Thank you for joining us to celebrate California’s women and girls and to honor this year’s recipients of the Abby J. Leibman Pursuit of Justice Award. The awards were presented to: Veronica Ollier, Naudia and Maritza Rangel, and Amanda and Arianna Hernandez, plaintiffs in the Title IX class action Ollier v. Sweetwater Union High School District;... [Read More]
At this year’s Family Law Conference, sponsored by the Legal Aid Asssociation of California, CWLC Staff Attorney Sarah Kroll-Rosenbaum led a training session on teen dating violence. This training comes from CWLC’s School Training, Outreach, and Policy (S.T.O.P.) Teen Dating Violence Initiative. Teen dating violence is a serious problem, affecting both heterosexual and homosexual relationships and crossing... [Read More]
The Protect Life Act would amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to prohibit the use of federal funds to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that covers abortion services. Sponsored by Joseph Pitts (R-PA), H.R.358 would would allow a hospital the right to refuse to perform emergency abortions when necessary to save the life of the woman. Click here to view the text of the proposed bill. TAKE... [Read More]
The California Women’s Law Center recently received a $74,000 cy pres award from the settlement of a class action lawsuit pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, In re Gemstar/T.V. Guide Securities Litigation. Cy pres awards often are made to charitable organizations like the law center out of unclaimed sums paid into a fund to settle class action litigation. The law firm... [Read More]
Chris Shelton is Professor of Exercise and Sport Studies at Smith College. She’s also a representative for the Americas for the International Working Group on Women and Sport. Chris says that today more girls than ever are interested in a whole range of sports. Whether you go to the barrios in Mexico where girls are playing soccer or the outskirts of Bogota’, where women are rock climbing, women and girls... [Read More]
UPDATE: LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles prosecutors have met with a British actress who claims she was sexually abused by director Roman Polanski when she was 16 in Paris. Forty-two-year-old Charlotte Lewis, speaking at a news conference Friday in Los Angeles, says Polanski abused her in 1982, four years before she appeared in Polanski’s “Pirates” film. District attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons... [Read More]