Litigating As Law Students: an Inside Look at Haitian Centers Council
Essays Litigating as Law Students: An Inside Look at Haitian Centers Council Victoria Clawson, Elizabeth Detweiler, and Laura Hot On June 8, 1993, a federal district court declared the world's first -IIV detention camp illegal and ordered the release of the Haitian refugees who were confined there. The United States government had created the camp at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantdnamo Bay, Cuba, and had detained approximately three hundred Haitian refugees there for eighteen months. Ironically, the day the last refugees were released from the camp, the Supreme Court, over Justice Blackmun's lone dissent, upheld the government's policy of summary repatriation (refoulement) of Haitian asylum seekers who are interdicted on the high seas. These two court decisions marked the end of a t J.D. Candidates, Yale Law School. While it is impossible to individually acknowledge all of those who gave their time, support, and energy to this case, we are especially grateful to Professor Harold Hongju Koh who has been our mentor and inspiration throughout the case and the writing of this Essay, and to our co-counsel-Ignatius Bau, Lucas Guttentag, Jennifer Klein, Judy Rabinovitz, Michael Ratner, Robert Rubin, Susan Sawyer, Suzanne Shende, and Joe Tringali. Wve also acknowledge the over one hundred past and present Yale Law students who worked on behalf of the Haitians, in particular: Melinda Amiotte, Michelle Anderson, Ethan Balogh, Michael Barr, Graham Boyd, Raymond Brescia, Wade Chow, Anthony Cichello, Rodger Citron, Sarah Cleveland, Christopher Coons, Lisa Daugaard, Margareth Etienne, Eric Falkenstein, Mercer Givhan, Carl Goldfarb, Adam Gutride, Thomas Hammack, Laurie Hoefer, Anthony K.
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