|
|
Constitutional
We have a long history of defending rights and liberties secured by the U.S. and Washington State Constitutions, including the Free Exercise of Religion, Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Association.
ELM lawyers who practice constitutional law:
Representative matters:
- We represented a group of high school students who were part of a Bible study group that had been denied permission to meet at their public school before school hours. After intense litigation with the school district, we prevailed after the U. S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the trial court to enter an order in favor of the students. The school district was also ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys fees and court costs.
- We represented a private university in connection with its $87,000,000 financing through the Washington Higher Education Facilities Authority funded by the Authority's $87,000,000 in tax exempt bonds. The transaction involved extensive negotiations with a syndication of banks for a letter of credit to secure repayment of the bonds, and negotiations with bond underwriters, bond counsel and the issuer. We worked closely with bond counsel to resolve and dispose of some First Amendment constitutional issues that could have stood in the way of the financing.
- Our client was a High School Junior who wanted to found a Bible Club to meet at her school during non-classroom time. She asked that her club be allowed to meet and be granted the same privileges given to a number of other clubs that met at her high school during the same non-classroom time. Our client was allowed to meet, but was told that because of the religious nature of her club, the group would have to meet at a different time and with different rules than all the other clubs. She could not advertise her club, appear in the yearbook, participate in the club fair, nor use school materials in the manner that was granted to all the other clubs at school. After repeated attempts to reason with school officials and convince them that federal law mandated equal treatment for all similar clubs, we initiated a suit in federal court. The federal judge dismissed our suit and found that the school's disparate treatment of the Bible Club was not against the law. However, on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, our client prevailed on every issue. That Court agreed that the school district could not engage in the type of discrimination described simply because of the religious nature of the club. To do so was a violation of the federal Equal Access Act and the Free Speech and Equal Protection clauses of the United States Constitution.
- A minister met with a young man seeking spiritual counsel in a confessional setting. The young man was later charged with a serious crime. The prosecutor sought and obtained a court order compelling the minister to divulge the confession or go to jail. Unwilling to betray the young man or violate his church's teaching holding the confession inviolate, the minister respectfully refused. We agreed to represent the minister, obtained an emergency stay of the order and appealed the order to Washington State Supreme Court. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court order and established a new precedent that extends the protections of the clergy-penitent privilege to all faiths. The case received national attention, and our client and one of our partners testified before the Judiciary Committee of the US Congress on the case.
- The First Amendment protects the employees of public and private sector employers who do not wish to join a union and pay only for union activities which directly benefit employees. We have represented hundreds of employees in individual and class-action lawsuits whose employers and unions violated their constitutionally protected rights of Free Speech and Freedom of Association. Through settlements and court rulings, we have also recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars for our clients in cases that have reached the State Supreme Court and the federal Ninth Circuit.
- Our client, a private school for troubled youth, had its property tax exemption for its faculty housing revoked, and we appealed. The exemption was restored after we persuaded the Board of Tax Appeals that the Department of Revenue's interpretation of the law conflicted with the First Amendment's guaranty of freedom of religion.
|
