Lawyers deliberately seek test-case communities to litigate novel discrimination theories.

Evidence

Fresh from victory in Kettleman City, Cole was excited to try his model in an almost identical situation: again, a major toxic waste dumper wanted a new permit to expand the dump near a Latino farm-worker town. Abascal had a few pet legal theories he was interested in trying out as well: he was searching for a compelling fact situation in which to try to litigate an environmental justice claim using Title VIII of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which he believed could provide a tool to challenge the increased segregation that appeared to him to invariably follow the siting of toxic waste dumps. — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 454

Categorization

• QUESTION: Ask how much the search for the ‘compelling fact situation’ shapes which communities get served by impact litigators—a critique of litigation-driven organizing.
• XREF: connects to: Plessy v. Ferguson was a deliberately staged test case against segregation — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2935; Litigated cases self-select to those where both sides have plausible legal arguments — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 253; Justices use oral argument questions to test and stress-test attorneys’ positions. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 938

Broader Connections

• Plessy v. Ferguson was a deliberately staged test case against segregation #exemplifies (0.93) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2935
• Litigated cases self-select to those where both sides have plausible legal arguments #expands (0.75) — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 253