[StBernard] Senate Bill 549

[Westley Annis]

Louisiana University Law Clinics Face Even Tougher Restrictions with
Proposed Senate Bill 549 
<http://www.labucketbrigade.org/img/original/robert-adleyjpg-f97007afbd9ecc6
1_small.jpg> 
Louisiana State Senator, Robert Adley, is pushing to pass Senate Bill 549
that would place even tougher restrictions on Louisiana university law
clinics. http://www.legis.state.la.us/billdata/streamdocument.asp?did=690665

Editorial from The Times-Picayune
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2010/04/post_65.html
 
Article from "Letters in Bottles"
 
The bill attacks the parent to get at the child. I don't think it's fair to
penalize the entire university's receipt of state funding because a
potentially privately funded law clinic operating within the school is
taking legal action.  There aren't enough state dollar strings attached to
the actual activity being regulated for the state to get that much leverage.
 
http://lettersinbottles.blogspot.com/2010/04/text-of-sb-549-law-clinics-bill
.html
 
http://lettersinbottles.blogspot.com/2010/04/tulane-laws-environmental-clini
c.html
Comments:
Randall
It appears to me to be a retaliatory bill being pushed by the Louisiana Oil
and Gas Association.  Similar legislation has been proposed in the past by
the Louisiana Chemical Association which essentially blacklisted Tulane
engineering graduates. I think that the oil and gas industry in Louisiana
has in general been trying to shut down Tulane's environmental law clinic
for decades. The university receives state funding in the form of
competitive research grants and related programs through the La. Board of
Regents, some "capitation" for La. students enrolled at the university,
clinical services contracts mostly through the medical school, etc., but I
don't believe that the Environmental Law Clinic, or for that matter the Law
School in general, receives any significant amount of direct state funding.
My understanding is that the clinic represents groups that cannot otherwise
afford to take on the big companies that apparently keep getting
successfully sued by the clinic. 
Monday, April 05, 2010, 11:46:04 AM