DEMAND DNA TEST TO PREVENT POSSIBLE WRONGFUL EXECUTION

Posted on by Mary Pat Gallagher

Until a few days ago, I had never heard of Kevin Cooper, who has been on California’s death row for more than 30 years, after being convicted of a quadruple homicide in 2003 that he apparently did not commit.

Not until I read Nicholas Kristof’s article in the May 20 New York Times, entitled “Was Kevin Cooper Framed for Murder?”

Kristof, whose opinion pieces typically concern international human rights abuses, lays out a convincing case that Cooper was, in fact,  framed.

Continue reading DEMAND DNA TEST TO PREVENT POSSIBLE WRONGFUL EXECUTION

BILL WOULD END SECRET SEX HARASS SETTLEMENTS, PRESERVE RIGHT TO SUE FOR DISCRIMINATION

Posted on by Mary Pat Gallagher

Last month, Governor Phil Murphy signed into law legislation meant to make sure that how much you are paid at work does not depend on your gender, race, age, religion or any other personal characteristic covered by NJ’s broad anti-discrimination law.

Another important bill also intended to protect equality in the workplace, is now moving through the Legislature and was voted out of the Senate Labor Committee on March 5 and the Assembly Labor Committee on May 10.

The legislation, S-121/A-1242, would prevent companies from requiring that workers or job applicants agree up front to relinquish their right to sue for discrimination or harassment or any other substantive or procedural right related to a claim for discrimination in order to keep their jobs or get hired in the first place. It would apply also to retaliation claims—where an employer fired or took some other adverse action against someone for complaining of discriminatory conduct.

In addition, the bill would outlaw the secret settlement of discrimination, harassment and retaliation claims, also referred to as “non-disclosure agreements, the sort repeatedly used by movie producer Harvey Weinstein when he paid off his accusers, allowing him to keep sexually assaulting and harassing women for decades.

Continue reading BILL WOULD END SECRET SEX HARASS SETTLEMENTS, PRESERVE RIGHT TO SUE FOR DISCRIMINATION

LANDMARK EQUAL PAY BILL AWAITS SIGNATURE

Posted on by Mary Pat Gallagher

The State of New Jersey is poised to enact a law that will provide the strongest equal pay protections in the U.S., on either the state or federal level.

The legislation, S-104, goes further than the 2009 Lilly Ledbetter Act, a federal law, which overturned federal court precedent limiting the time in which women could sue over discriminatory pay practices and how much they could recover if they won.

Among other protections that exceed those in the federal, law, the NJ legislation allows recovery of up to six years of back pay, provides for treble damages and prohibits employers from requiring existing workers or new hires to waive their legal rights as a condition of employment. It specifically bars any waiver of the two-year time limit for filing suit. (A 2014 state appellate court decision, Rodriguez v. Raymours Furniture, had found such a waiver, one that shortened the time to sue to only six months, was enforceable but the state Supreme Court reversed in 2016.)

The proposed law applies not just to female employees but to any class of employees shielded by the broad scope of NJ’s Law Against Discrimination, or LAD. The LAD’s 17 protected categories include race, color, national origin, disability, age, affectional/sexual orientation, military status and genetic information.

Continue reading LANDMARK EQUAL PAY BILL AWAITS SIGNATURE

COMPLAINT SAYS RADBURN BY-LAW CHANGES WERE MEANT TO THWART NEW VOTING PROTECTIONS FOR PLANNED COMMUNITIES

Posted on by Mary Pat Gallagher

On January 23, New Jersey Appleseed filed a complaint on behalf of Radburn United, a community group that is asking for the state’s help in preserving the voting rights of those who reside there.

Founded in 1929 as one of the first planned communities in the United States, Radburn is a private, unincorporated association within Fair Lawn, with over 3,000 people living in a mixture of single-family homes, townhouses, two-family houses, and an apartment complex.

Continue reading COMPLAINT SAYS RADBURN BY-LAW CHANGES WERE MEANT TO THWART NEW VOTING PROTECTIONS FOR PLANNED COMMUNITIES

STATE BACKS OFF EFFORT TO PRIVATIZE ATLANTIC CITY WATER SYSTEM

Posted on by Mary Pat Gallagher

Atlantic City residents can stop worrying that the state, which took over their local government in the fall of 2016, is going to sell or lease their water system out from under them, at least in the near future.

In a statement made public on December 20, Jeffrey Chiesa, who was chosen by Governor Chris Christie to oversee the state takeover of the City, announced “the public can rest assured that the MUA [Municipal Utilities Authority] will not be privatized by the State.”

Continue reading STATE BACKS OFF EFFORT TO PRIVATIZE ATLANTIC CITY WATER SYSTEM

ICE Courthouse Arrests Undermine Justice

Posted on by Mary Pat Gallagher

A report released in the past week confirms that the Trump administration policy of arresting undocumented immigrants in and around courthouses is undermining our system of justice.

When federal immigration agents swoop in and arrest undocumented immigrants while they are present in or on their way to court, it doesn’t just hurt those they sweep up, detain and deport.

The report, by Make the Road New Jersey, an immigrant advocacy group based in Elizabeth, found that such arrests, which have risen sharply since Trump took office, have created a chilling effect that is keeping people away from courts and social services.

Continue reading ICE Courthouse Arrests Undermine Justice

A Healthcare Coalition

Posted on by Renée Steinhagen

By Renee Steinhagen

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NJ Appleseed’s Role in the New Jersey and Greater Newark Coalitions

Since our inception, NJ Appleseed has focused its efforts on health care issues, providing a legal voice to communities and organizations seeking to establish health care as a social right by preserving hospitals as charitable community assets, improving access to quality, affordable health care services, and diminishing racial disparities in the health status of Newark residents. Our work in this area can be characterized as three distinct projects: The Community Health Assets Protection Project (representing the community in administrative and court procedures to ensure that hospital boards satisfy their fiduciary duties to the public when seeking to merge or sell their charitable health assets to a for-profit entity or another nonprofit with a different mission); a Consumer Advocacy Project and a Transforming Healthcare Delivery Project.

Under the rubric of our Consumer Advocacy Project, NJ Appleseed has participated on the leadership team of the NJ Healthcare Coalition since its founding in 2006. As the only legal organization participating in the Coalition (Legal Services of NJ informally participates but is not a member), NJ Appleseed services the Coalition, its individual members and the public generally with respect to legal policy issues, including drafting and analyzing legislation, preparing regulatory comments, and preparing white papers and consumer manuals with respect to legal rights, such as the right to appeal insurance denials of benefits. We are now considering whether to convert the New Jersey Sentinel website (which was product of a joint project between NJ Appleseed and Seton Hall Law School, funded by RWJ Foundation to evaluate essential benefits) into a comprehensive consumer health care website that provides information directly to New Jersey consumers on how to navigate the insurance, health care (providers), and public health systems in the State, and perhaps the website could deal with occupational health and safety as well as environmental health issues.

Since the closure of St. James and Columbus hospitals in Newark, NJ Appleseed’s Executive Director has been a board member of the Greater Newark Healthcare Coalition (consisting of a wide array of providers, including hospitals, physicians, federally qualified health centers, nurses, etc.), which was established as the Hospital CEO Working Group as a result of those closures. The Coalition is a planning organization that oversees various projects that seek to transform the healthcare system so it is more equitable, socially and racially just, and effective in improving the health status of Newark residents. NJ Appleseed is the Chair of the Legal and Advocacy Subcommittee, which is the one Board committee that draws mainly from persons who are not represented on the board. As one of three non providers on the board –- representatives from NJIT and Seton Hall Law School are the other two –- NJ Appleseed is trying to bring the consumer perspective to the Board’s decision making, and to encourage community participation in the organization’s activities.

We are seeking resources to support our activities in these two coalitions.

Advisors