American Constitution Society Announces Winners of 2021 David Carliner Public Interest Award and Richard D. Cudahy Writing Award

Awards will be presented during the ACS National Virtual Convention June 7-11 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Pablo Willis, media@acslaw.org 

Washington, DC — The American Constitution Society (ACS) is pleased to announce that Adaku Onyeka-Crawford, Director of Educational Equity & Senior Counsel at the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), will receive the 2021 David Carliner Public Interest Award and Amir Ali, Deputy Director, Supreme Court & Appellate Program at the MacArthur Justice Center along with Chase Strangio, Deputy Director for Transgender Justice at the ACLU Jon L. Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović LGBTQ & HIV Project, will be named award finalists for their respective innovative work and commitment to protecting civil and human rights. 

ACS is also pleased to award the 2021 Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition on Regulatory and Administrative Law to two recipients this year. This year’s lawyer category winner is Professor Andrew Hammond, Assistant Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and this year’s student category winner is Joseph Daval, a class of 2021 graduate of Yale Law School. 

“I am honored to be able to announce this year’s recipients of the Carliner and Cudahy Awards,” said ACS President Russ Feingold. “As the nation’s leading progressive legal organization, ACS is committed to the law being a force for change to improve the lives of all, including those in historically marginalized communities that have not always had the legal system on their side. I commend this year’s award recipients, and their work to uphold the Constitution and ensure that the law is a force for protecting our democracy and the rights of all.” 

The annual David Carliner Public Interest Award honors a mid-career public interest attorney whose work best exemplifies David Carliner’s legacy of fearless, uncompromising, and creative advocacy on behalf of marginalized people. 

NWLC’s education equity work seeks to eliminate barriers and gender-based discrimination too many students, face when trying to access quality education, with a particular focus on addressing the needs of girls of color. This includes fighting for Title IX and inclusive school climates, and against sexual harassment and assault, racially disparate discipline, racist and sexist school dress codes, and bias against pregnant and parenting students. The MacArthur Justice Center’s Supreme Court & Appellate Program fights for civil rights and the rights of the incarcerated in the highest appellate courts in the nation and have won landmark cases regarding police misconduct, solitary confinement, prison conditions, wrongful death, and convictions. The ACLU’s transgender justice work is focused on fighting discrimination against trans people in housing, employment, healthcare, and public places. The program often fights barriers to critical healthcare that trans-gender people need and seeks to safeguard the rights of transgender parents.  

The Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition on Regulatory and Administrative Law is in honor of the late Judge Cudahy. His distinguished contributions to the fields of regulatory and administrative law combined a keen grasp of legal doctrine, deep insight into the institutional forces that determine how doctrine is implemented, and an appreciation of the public impact of doctrinal and institutional choices, including the consequences for fundamental values such as fairness, participation, and transparency. This competition seeks to encourage and reward these qualities in the scholarship of others. 

This year, the award is being presented to Professor Hammond for his article, Litigating Welfare Rights, which argues that public interest welfare litigation has played a key role in the durability and resiliency of this country’s two largest anti-poverty programs – Medicaid and SNAP.  Daval’s selection was based on his paper, The Problem with Public Charge, which examines the administrative history of the public charge exclusion, a provision in the immigration statute which permits the United States government to deny entry or a green card to anyone who is “likely at any time to become a public charge”. 

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