Our civil rights work is some of the most important advocacy work that we do. From fighting racism and race discrimination, to protecting immigrants, to advocating for the constitutional rights of peaceful protesters and incarcerated Oregonians, David and Nadia take on important and impactful cases that go to the heart of our democracy.
Maney v. Brown, No. 6:20-cv-00570-SB (U.S. District Court of Oregon)
In this ongoing case, David and Nadia, together with the Oregon Justice Resource Center, represent adults incarcerated in Oregon prisons who contracted COVID-19. The rate of COVID-19 in Oregon’s prisons is roughly twice that of the rate of infection in the general population. Over 5000 people have been infected, and 49 people have died. In an earlier stage of the case, the team obtained an injunction requiring the State to prioritize access to vaccines for adults in custody. The district court recently certified a damages class of individuals who contracted COVID-19 while in custody, as well as a wrongful death class of those who died from COVID-19 while incarcerated.
Doe #1 v. Trump, No. 3:19-cv-01743-SI (U.S. District Court of Oregon)
In this class action case, Nadia represented a class of immigrant visa applicants seeking to reunite with family members in the United States but who were subject to the Trump Administration’s healthcare ban—an Executive Order that arbitrarily imposed health insurance requirements on intending immigrants. Nadia litigated this case in her capacity as Senior Litigation Attorney for the Portland-based nonprofit Innovation Law Lab, together with the Justice Action Center and the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Richards v. Or. Health & Sciences Univ., No. 21CV47583 (Multnomah Cnty. Cir. Ct.)
David and Nadia, along with co-counsel from Albies & Stark, represents current and former Black and people of color who work or worked for Oregon Health Sciences University. OHSU disciplines and terminates employees who are Black or people of color at far greater rates than it does its white employees. This race discrimination class action was filed in December 2021.
Nordenstrom v. Corizon Health, Inc., No. 3:18-cv-01754-HZ (U.S. District Court of Oregon)
This case arose out of the tragic death of a pretrial detainee at the Clackamas County Jail. Nadia worked with trial attorneys John Coletti and Chad Stavley to bring civil rights, negligence, and gross negligence claims against the County, its healthcare provider, Corizon Health, Inc., and several of their individual employees and officers. The case involved significant and important questions surrounding the constitutional right to adequate medical care in the corrections setting.