Last Wednesday (June 20), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
announced the launch of a new website that provides information about the EEOC's
Amicus Program and a searchable, online database that contains all briefs filed since 2000 "in the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals in which the Commission was a party, or briefs filed as a ‘friend of the court’ (
amicus curiae) in those courts, as well as in U.S. District Courts and state courts."
The
Amicus Program website should be of particular interest to NELA members because it now makes available the criteria EEOC uses to evaluate whether to participate in a case, provides instructions on submitting an
amicus request to the Commission, and announces a new email address -
amicus@eeoc.gov - where counsel can submit such requests.
The new searchable database has long been sought after by NELA and employee rights advocates. The service provides both full text as well as specific search capabilities, if you know the case for which you are looking.
Of note, briefs involving the EEOC before the U.S. Supreme Court are not available on this new website, but are available on the Department of Justice, Office of the Solicitor General's page:
http://www.justice.gov/osg/briefs/index.html
You can find more information about NELA's
Amicus Program, including the request form needed to start the review process, on
our website. If you are appealing (or considering appealing) a decision presenting emerging issues in employment/civil rights law or which potentially will have detrimental effects on workers' rights, please feel free to contact Rebecca M. Hamburg, NELA Program Director, at 415.296.7629 or
rhamburg@nelahq.org to discuss your inquiry.