Our Mission
CWL's Advocacy and Action: One Powerful Voice for Women
CWL, with its statewide focus and headquarters in Sacramento, is uniquely well situated to develop and implement an advocacy agenda. This year, we have been productively engaged in the courts, the legislatures and the media.
Amicus Briefs on Women's Issues
The advancement of a women’s rights agenda depends heavily on court decisions for its success. Since its inception, CWL has devoted significant energy to an active Amicus Program in which CWL prepares or joins others in presenting amicus briefs in cases relevant to CWL’s core issues.
This past year, CWL appeared as amicus curiae in three important cases. Most recently, CWL was solicited to submit an amicus curiae letter in support of a petition for review by the California Supreme Court filed by the Attorney General. The petition presented a criminal-law issue especially relevant to the domestic-violence context—pinning down the parameters of the “provocation” defense, which reduces a murderer’s culpability to voluntary manslaughter. This issue arises in virtually all domestic-violence murders because the murderer almost always argues that his wife or girlfriend “provoked” her own murder. The Supreme Court granted review and CWL is currently working with allied organizations to draft an amici curiae brief on the merits.
Earlier in the year, CWL joined an amici curiae brief in one of the lawsuits challenging the Affordable Care Act. The brief, filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, explained the gender discrimination inherent in the unregulated insurance market and positioned the healthcare law as civil rights legislation extending, protecting, and ensuring that quality medical services are available to all women. CWL’s third major amicus curiae project this year was joining a brief in support of the plaintiff class in the Wal-Mart v. Dukes sex discrimination case. That brief presented the United States Supreme Court with voluminous social science and public policy data showing that discrimination hurts the employer’s bottom line. CWL’s amicus curiae projects have helped burnish our reputation as a source for thoughtful input on complex issues implicating women’s rights and equal justice under the law.
Legislative Agenda
CWL conducts a dynamic legislative program to foster the political clout and credibility necessary to effect social change and is a strong voice in the public policy debates that shape standards for women’s and children’s rights in the workplace and society. CWL's legislative committee, working in conjunction with CWL's affiliates, monitors proposed bills at the state and federal levels, evaluates their significance and relevance to CWL's mission, and recommends whether CWL should support or oppose these measures. The Board of Governors then votes on the committee’s recommendations for CWL action.
This year, we wrote supporting AB 90 and AB 12 as important steps towards eliminating human trafficking and sex crimes against minors and endorsed using forfeited funds and fines for these crimes to pay for necessary community programs and counseling. We supported AB 1147, which would carry out the intent of the Teen Parents in Foster Care Act by requiring an additional child welfare agency case management-report to help monitor what age and developmentally appropriate services are provided to a minor parent in foster care. And we added our support to AB 52, which would give the Departments of Insurance and Managed Health Care the authority to disapprove requests for excessive premium increases by insurance companies and HMOs.
CWL also issued a letter in opposition to AB 1208, which, if enacted, would shift authority over court administration from the Judicial Council to local courts.
In all, CWL issued approximately 15 letters in support of significant legislation this year, involving additional key issues such as: The Respect for Marriage Act, Transparency in Judicial Selection, Insurance Coverage for Maternity Services, Family Justice Centers, State Redistricting, Shackling of Pregnant Women in Prison, and Judicial Demographics.
Combating Insensitivity to Gender Bias
On a new front, we addressed bias in the media. We began by commending the editors of the Daily Journal for publishing "A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words," by Gay Crosthwait Grunfeld and Leslie Thornton., which persuasively described a problem of discriminatory coverage of women lawyers, then pointed out that the Journal’s practices remained unchanged.
For example, in a fold-out entitled "Intellectual Property," published on April 6, 2011, the Daily Journal named 75 Top IP Litigators, only ten of whom were female. We pointed out that the assessment was inexplicable in light of the fact that its own publication, California Lawyer, includes at least 36 women on the Super Lawyers list of intellectual property litigators in San Francisco alone. We urged the Daily Journal to make drastic changes in the way it editorializes about top lawyers and to commit to working toward gender equality in its textual and pictorial coverage. We also offered our assistance, and that of our affiliates in providing information on women in the profession to aid the Daily Journal in fulfilling that commitment. Our letter, dated April 18, 2011, received no reply, reflecting yet another instance of insensitivity. More work remains to be done on this intractable issue.
Seeking Diversity in the Judiciary and Appointive Office
CWL strongly believes that it is of the utmost importance that judges have diversity of background and life experiences. That allows them to bring differing perspectives to decision making and thereby improve their deliberative processes and enhance the quality of justice and the perception of equality to the litigants and the public.
We continue to advocate for this key goal and are proud to note that CWL shared one of the first diversity awards given to bar associations for our consistent efforts to include more women in the legal profession and on the bench.
Recently, we wrote to California’s Senators and members of the Senate and House judiciary committees to draw their attention to the need to appoint women to the federal courts in the Northern and Eastern Districts of California. We also urged the appointment of women as judges and United States Attorneys in those Districts and statewide.
In January, we wrote Governor Brown urging that he make appointments consistent with diversity, providing statistical information on the lack of parity and emphasizing CWL’s historic involvement in the selection process and interest in continuing to be a resource to the Governor in selecting qualified candidates for judicial and appointive positions.
We also supported the nominations of candidates for federal appointment, including Kim Mueller for appointment as the first Article III judge on the Federal District Court for the Eastern District since its creation in 1966; Melinda Haig, now United States Attorney for the Northern District of California; and Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, nominated to be the first Latina on the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.
