Current Litigation
The Louisiana Justice Institute has been involved in several cases involving the rights of New Orleans Katrina survivors, including Kirk vs. City of New Orleans and Ray Nagin, litigating the rights of all New Orleans home-owners to constitutionally guaranteed notice and opportunity to be heard prior to their houses being bulldozed; Powell vs. Quality Inn Mason St. Charles, litigating the rights of evacuees living in hotels funded by FEMA to adequate notice prior to evacuation; Lott vs. Orleans Parish School Board, litigating the rights of returning New Orleans Public Schools students to immediate re-enrollment and admission to publicly funded Orleans Parish schools; McWaters vs. FEMA (intervention of behalf of Louisiana FEMA hotel residents), seeking a restraining order against FEMA from evicting Louisiana evacuees on February 13, 2006; ACORN et. al. vs. Kathleen Blanco, Governor - State of Louisiana, litigating the voting rights of New Orleans evacuees and their right to equal access to the franchise as promised by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the U.S. constitution; Anderson vs. Jackson, suing on behalf of public housing residents fighting for their rights to return home; Castellanos-Contreras, et. al. vs. Decatur Hotels, LLC, and Patrick Quinn, a collective action case on behalf of immigrant guest-workers suing major Louisiana hotel chain and its owner for Fair Labor Standards Act violations; Royal vs. Orleans Parish School Board, a class action case on behalf of the students of New Orleans public schools demanding transportation services be provided to and from school; Bently vs. Picard, a class action case on behalf of New Orleans area children "wait-listed" and denied immediate enrollment in New Orleans public schools; Joshua et. al. vs. City of New Orleans and Mayor Ray Nagin, a second class action case on behalf of New Orleans residents whose homes have been demolished and are slated to be demolished without prior notice and opportunity for hearing; Allen vs. Algiers Charter Schools Association, a whistleblower case alleging financial impropriety, fraud and waste against Orleans Parish's largest charter school network; Allen vs. Housing Authority of New Orleans, a lawsuit enjoining the local housing authority from destroying public housing without proper notice and legislative authorization; David vs. Signal International, Inc., a collective action wage case, alleging fraud, and illegal trafficking of Indian nationals into the United States to work in the Mississippi shipbuilding industry under deplorable, slave-like conditions; Grace Harbour vs. FEMA, a suit by a Placquemines Parish non-profit on behalf of over 800 residents who had been promised mobile homes by FEMA, which reneged on its contract; and LeBlanc et. al. vs. Thomas et. al., a class action case challenging the illegal closure of the Avory C. Alexander Charity hospital building.
