A brief history and overview of current projects (plus, puppies!)

About UsAND A BIT OF HISTORY

What We’re About

CREEC is a membership organization that has the goal of ensuring that everyone can fully and independently participate in our nation’s civic life without discrimination based on race, gender, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Roots

Fox & Robertson: The Early Months (our apartment office)

The University Building

104 Broadway

LitigationINVESTIGATING, NEGOTIATING, THEN ( IF NECESSARY) SUING THEIR BEHI NDS

Early Cases

Early Cases

Timpte next contends that the noose and doll incident is insufficient to create a triable issue of fact regarding a hostile environment at Timpte because there is no evidence that the incident was racially motivated. Timpte may make that astonishing argument to a jury. In light of the undisputed fact that a nude Black doll -- as opposed to a doll of some other race -- was found hanging from a noose in the locker of an African-American man, it would not require a jury to make a herculean leap of logic to conclude that the noose and doll incident was racially motivated.

Gooden v. Timpte, Inc., 2000 WL 34507333, at *11 (D. Colo. June 29, 2000)

Early Cases

Shopping is one of the great American pastimes. People browse in shops and shopping areas, see what is available and make purchases if something catches their fancy. There simply is no requirement in the ADA that a person desiring entrance into a place of public accommodation have a specific desire to make a purchase at that particular business, as defendants' arguments intimate.

Colorado Cross Disability Coal. v. Hermanson Family Ltd. P'ship I, 1997 WL 33471623, at *4 (D. Colo. Aug. 5, 1997).

Lucas v. Kmart: inaccessible shopping.

Amy’s step-father investigating a Kmart. Tim’s mom was one of our interviewers, too.

Possibly our best press coverage ever: Mouth magazine

Kmart’s Expert’s Notes and Video.

Non-disabled spokesmodel with no footrests easily accesses the merchandise.

Even easier to just get out and push the wheelchair from behind. Will remember to suggest that to our clients.

Practice pointer: always ask for the opposing expert’s notes.

Lucas v. Kmart: Settlement.

CCDC v. Taco Bell: queue lines that segregate.

Can you spot the two people who signed the DOJ’s amicus brief in 1999 and are here with us tonight?

Shepherd/Hollenbeck v. USOC: different standards for disabled athletes.

Congress created the USOC to administer the Olympics and Paralympics. When we sued, the former got 97% of the athletic budget; the latter, 3%. We thought this was discrimination. Sadly, the Tenth Circuit disagreed.

Coors Field: unequal seating and views.

The clear language of Standard 4.33.3 requires fans with disabilities be provided lines of sight and prices comparable to those of non-disabled fans, and the ADAAG Manual states the exception is not an exception to comparable pricing requirement. According to an old saying, baseball is as American as Mom and apple pie. In a newly constructed public assembly area, a facility constructed specifically to enjoy that all-American activity, such as Coors Field, should be required to provide access to all Americans, disabled and non-disabled, and may not discriminate on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of Coors Field and the home team, the Colorado Rockies.

Colorado Cross-Disability Coal. v. Colorado Rockies Baseball Club, Ltd., 336 F. Supp. 2d 1141, 1146-47 (D. Colo. 2004)

Lane v. Santa Cruz Metro: transit discrimination.

Linda Kilb (DREDF), Deborah Lane, Joshua Loya & the FoxRob team.

Moeller v. Taco Bell: queue lines (and more) still discriminate.

Surveys!

Moeller v. Taco Bell: queue line justice.

The [queue line] also violates the ADA's integration mandate. Title III requires public accommodations to provide “[g]oods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations ... in the most integrated setting appropriate ...,” and prohibits places of public accommodation from providing people with disabilities with services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations that are not equal to, or are different or separate from those provided to other individuals. “Providing services in the most integrated setting is a fundamental principle of the ADA.”

Moeller v. Taco Bell Corp., 816 F. Supp. 2d 831, 867 (N.D. Cal. 2011) (citations omitted).

Plaintiffs Ed Muegge,

Craig Yates, and

Corbett, with expert Eric McSwain.

Anderson v. Colorado: fighting for outdoor exercise.

Mr. Anderson … has been deprived of any form of outdoor exercise, and virtually any meaningful exposure to fresh air, for 12 years. … Coupled with the other conditions of administrative segregation at the CSP, this prolonged deprivation is a paradigm of inhumane treatment.Anderson v. Colorado, 887 F. Supp. 2d 1133, 1140 (D. Colo. 2012)

Decoteau v. Raemisch: the fight goes on.

This Facility Program Plan (FPP) outlines the requirements for design and construction to provide group outdoor recreation space for Close Custody Management Control Unit offenders at the Colorado State Penitentiary (CSP). The project’s conception was initially in response to a Final Order and Judgment in the Civil Action between Plaintiff Troy Anderson and the State of Colorado, Department of Corrections, regarding conditions of confinement in the Administrative Segregation housing classification . . . In fact, a class-action lawsuit involving all current offenders housed at CSP and allowed access only to the current individual exercise rooms has been initiated. The project defined in this Facility Program Plan is in part intended to satisfy the directives issued in the Anderson case as well as to negate future litigation.

Colorado Department of Corrections, Facility Program Plan submitted on July 25, 2014

Undercover Discrimination Investigation

* My paraphrase of “individuals who, without an intent to rent or purchase a home or apartment, pose as renters or purchasers for the purpose of collecting evidence of unlawful [housing] practices” have standing to sue under the Fair Housing Act. ““That the tester may have approached the real estate agent fully expecting that he would receive false information, and without any intention of buying or renting a home, does not negate the simple fact of injury within the meaning of” the Fair Housing Act. Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman, 455 U.S. 363, 373, 374-75 (1982).

Discrimination is illegal – and can be challenged in court – even if the target intentionally put him/herself in a discriminatory situation to investigate it and bring it to light.* YOU CAN HELP US INVESTIGATE:

Businesses that discriminate on the basis of race, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Religious discrimination in employment ads.

Inaccessible apartments or businesses.

More Ongoing Investigations.

No effective communication at the doctor’s office or hospital

Lack of necessary curb-cuts

Inaccessible hotel vans.

EducationPRESENTATIONS, EVENTS, SPEECHES, AND OTHER OUTREACH

Education

Presenting at CCDC’s Advanced Advocacy class

CREEC’s booth at the DeafNation Expo. Cara did dual duty a sign language interpreter and candy supplier!

CREEC’s booth at the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado Convention.

Outreach

Outreach

Amy and Holly’s road trip to Durango to present to the Southwest Independence Center

CREEC’s table at the 110th Anniversary of the University of Denver Law School’s Clinical Programs.

Our Board of DirectorsWE’RE NOT WORTHY! WE’RE NOT WORTHY!

Board of Directors

Bill Lann Lee: Clinton’s assistant attorney general for civil rights. Continues to raise civil rights hell at Lewis, Feinberg, Lee, Renaker & Jackson. Co-counsel extraordinaire. Tonight’s speaker!

Donna Hilton: Proposal writer and marketer at McKesson Corp. Fundraising guru. Important CREEC trivia: Donna and Amy came up with the name “Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center” driving around Denver to inspect fair housing violations while Donna was Executive Director at Housing for All.

Mari Newman: Partner at Killmer, Lane & Newman; seeking justice for Coloradans who want to marry and others who prefer not to have the crap beaten out of them by the police.

CREEC’s Board at a Rockies game early last season.

Staff and Co-CounselPEOPLE WE LOVE TO WORK WITH

Cool Venn diagram credit: Jeff Weiner http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/27/best-people-at-work-linkedin_n_5711075.html

Staff

Co-Counsel & Friends

Co-Counsel, Friends, and Food!

Experts

DONORS and SPONSORSWITH DEEP APPRECIATION.

Habanero

Ruth Blau

Cayenne, Jalapeño, and Chipotle

David A. Jones, Jr. &Mary Gwen Wheeler

Kim & Mary Kay Love

Steve & Courtney Marsters

David S. North

Lawson Law Office

Peppadew

Kathi Pugh & Josh Maddox

Bruce & Terri Robertson

Laura Rovner

Lainey Feingold

Michael Bien

Susan Ann Silverstein & Kenneth Shiotani

LaBarre Law Offices

and of course . . . DOGS!

Chinook, Saguaro, and Holly