Campus Notes

An email obtained by the Cardinal Newman Society shows that Fordham University Law School’s Public Interest Resource Center circulated an email advertising a job opening at the Center for Reproductive Rights, a militant abortion-rights organization which has battled against sonogram laws, secured government funding for abortion, and advances its mission of ensuring abortion is “a fundamental right that all governments are legally obligated to protect, respect and fulfill.”

The email, which seems to have been circulated by Andrew Chapin, Director of Counseling and Public Interest Scholars, was forwarded to the Cardinal Newman Society from a disturbed alumnus.

“It’s horrible, scandalous, and typical of Fordham Law school,” said William D. Broderick who graduated from Fordham Law in 1995 and practices law in New York City.

Here is the email:

Hi Andrew -
It would be wonderful if you’d circulate as you see fit – we are
looking for someone great to join the U.S. Legal Program’s litigation team.
http://reproductiverights.org/en/jobs/staff-attorney-us-legal-program

Staff Attorney (U.S. Legal Program)

12.22.11 – Job Title: Staff Attorney

Department: U.S. Legal Program

Job Posted On: Thursday, December 22, 2011

Center Background: Founded in 1992 and headquartered in New York City, the Center for Reproductive Rights is a non-profit organization that promotes women’s equality worldwide by securing reproductive rights in constitutional and international human rights law.  Its mission is straightforward and ambitious: to advance reproductive health and rights as a fundamental right that all governments are legally obligated to protect, respect and fulfill. The Center is unmatched as a reproductive rights organization in its expertise on U.S. constitutional law, comparative law, and international human rights law.

In the U.S. Legal Program, the Center’s preeminent litigation team has helped millions of women and their families by securing government funding for abortions, striking down absolute abortion bans and other access restrictions, and protecting teens’ access to emergency contraception and confidential reproductive healthcare services and information. During the past 19 years, Center attorneys have been counsel in virtually every major U.S. Supreme Court case about reproductive rights.  In the last two years, the Center litigated over 20 cases on a range of reproductive rights issues. The Center’s state program is actively engaged in strategic state- and local-level advocacy across the country. At the same time that the Center is defending women’s reproductive rights in courts and legislatures, it works toward the long-term goal of promoting reproductive rights and health as a fundamental human rights issue. By incorporating a human rights framework in its U.S. work in communications, legal arguments
(e.g., in amicus briefs), and tactics (e.g., fact-finding reports,
U.S. obligations to U.N. human rights treaties), it seeks to bring
developments in international and comparative constitutional law and litigation to bear on U.S. law and policy. The Center’s Law School Initiative – launched in 2008 – promotes legal scholarship and teaching on reproductive health and human rights to shape the thinking of the next generation of lawyers, judges, and policymakers.

The new staff attorney will be joining the Center at an exciting time for the institution and at a critical time for the nation. As
opponents of women’s rights are mounting a scorched-earth campaign to turn back decades of hard-won progress, the Center is fighting back with short-, medium-, and long-term strategies, embodied in a new strategic plan being launched in early 2012.  The U.S. Legal Program’s efforts include litigation on a large and diverse docket of cases; a nimble state legislative program that provides the first line of defense; human rights strategies to hold the U.S. government accountable; and a well-respected Law School Initiative to promote teaching and scholarship on reproductive rights.  The new staff attorney will join a highly accomplished team of dedicated attorneys and advocates; the 21-member U.S. Legal Program includes deputy directors, staff attorneys (including senior staff attorneys), Law School Initiative director, state advocacy counsel, human rights counsel, fellowship attorneys, academic fellows, and legal associates
and assistants.

Job Responsibilities

The Center seeks an attorney to litigate reproductive rights cases and to develop and manage other advocacy projects on reproductive rights and health issues. The attorney will be responsible for all aspects of litigation, including developing new cases, discovery and motion practice, trials, and appeals.  Other projects may include legislative advocacy, human rights advocacy, developing policy papers and drafting legal or fact analysis for Center publications or articles.  The attorney will actively participate in program planning and will supervise junior staff and interns.  S/he will represent the Center at public events, conferences and coalition meetings and will be responsible for developing and maintaining client and other important institutional relationships.

The Archdiocese of New York has been notified and promised to “look into it” according to an email from Fr. Dan O’Reilly, Director of University Apostolate with the Archdiocese to Broderick.

Broderick said this job posting email from Fordham is not an anomaly. “This is not an issue where something fell through the cracks, ” he said. “I’ve received pro-abortion rights job listings in the past.”

This isn’t the first time the Law School at Fordham has made news recently. The Cardinal Newman Society recently reported that a club called Law Students for Reproductive Justice at Fordham University School of Law touts on the university’s website its “pro-choice” activities and its work as “escorts” for Planned Parenthood.  Most recently, the group organized a birth control clinic just off campus.

Fordham did not respond to inquiries.