lawyer

We’re counting down 10 of the biggest stories The Imprint published in 2019. Each day, we’ll connect readers with a few links to our coverage on a big story from this past year.

 As I wrote last week, the federal government quietly introduced a momentous new funding source for child welfare systems before the holidays. The Department of Health and Human Services will now reimburse states for legal support given to parents involved in child welfare proceedings, and to their children.

A few days before Christmas, the federal government extended an invitation to state child welfare agencies that has the potential to completely transform the system. The invitation did not arrive with great publicity.

Fifty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court provided a blanket of protection against railroading youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Seven years later, Congress attempted to do the same for children involved in child welfare proceedings.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s In re Gault decision that established the right of children to counsel in juvenile court. In opening the way for a system of legal representation for youth in the juvenile justice system, the court famously declared that “[u]nder our Constitution, the condition of being a boy does not justify a kangaroo court.”

The authors – M. Dyan McGuire, Michael Vaughn, Jeffrey Shook and Tamara Kenny – have attempted to “fill a void by explicitly exploring whether juveniles comprehend what a lawyer is supposed to do for them.

Jennifer Eberhardt, a social psychologist with Stanford University, was among the 21 people who received a 2014 “Genius” Award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Eberhardt’s career focus is on the unconscious way in which humans code and categorize people by race, particularly as it relates to perceptions about crime.