Amicus Briefs
The Human Trafficking Legal Center files amicus briefs on behalf of survivors of human trafficking to inform courts about human trafficking data, precedent, and trends.
Amicus Briefs
The Human Trafficking Legal Center, represented pro bono by John Burton Law, filed an amicus brief in support of a group of Cambodian migrant workers. The workers brought a federal civil case, alleging that they were held in forced labor in Thai shrimp processing factories. The district court dismissed the case, a decision that was affirmed by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In response, the Cambodian migrant workers filed a petition for rehearing by the full appellate court (en banc). The Human Trafficking Legal Center’s amicus brief urged the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to grant the petition for rehearing, detailing the significant impact that the court’s prior ruling could have on survivors seeking justice under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center, represented pro bono by Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court to protect trafficking survivors’ ability to recover in RICO cases. The case before the Supreme Court concerned whether a plaintiff is prohibited from suing under RICO for injuries to business or property simply because the injuries flow from, or are derivative of, a personal injury. The Human Trafficking Legal Center’s amicus brief highlighted the potential impact of the Court’s decision on human trafficking cases. A decision denying plaintiffs a remedy under RICO could have the unfortunate effect of immunizing the most egregious perpetrators from liability.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center, Legal Aid Society and Outten & Golden LLP filed an amicus brief on behalf of 13 human and labor rights organizations in support of the plaintiff, a nurse from the Philippines. The plaintiff alleged that he was coerced into signing a bait-and-switch contract that contained a forced arbitration clause. The nurse left his employment, fearing that he would lose his nursing license given the dangerous working conditions. After his departure, the defendant filed suit against him for “damages” in excess of $20,000 and forced the plaintiff into arbitration proceedings. The amicus brief urged the Second Circuit to uphold the district court’s decision, which had enjoined the arbitration proceedings and recognized that the plaintiff was likely to succeed in establishing that the arbitration clause violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA). The Second Circuit upheld the district court’s ruling and remanded the case for further proceedings on the merits.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center, represented by pro bono counsel, Dechert LLP, filed an amicus brief in support of the petitioners in a domestic worker trafficking case pending before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The brief argues that the United States has failed to take all possible measures to prevent trafficking of domestic workers by diplomats under the A-3/G-5 visa program, and has failed to hold diplomatic traffickers accountable. The Center’s amicus brief advocates for three policy changes to prevent these abuses and to provide adequate remedies for domestic workers: the United States must make A-3/G-5 visas portable from employer to employer; the United States must prosecute more forced labor cases, particularly forced labor perpetuated by diplomats; and the United States should follow the lead of the United Kingdom Supreme Court and reinterpret the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to preclude diplomatic immunity as a defense to civil claims for human trafficking.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center and Aaron Halegua, PLLC filed an amicus brief on behalf of six members of Congress in support of the plaintiffs, a group of Cambodian migrant workers who alleged that they were held in forced labor in Thai shrimp processing factories. The brief urged the Ninth Circuit to reverse the district court after it denied the plaintiffs’ motion to reopen the case. Last year, the Ninth Circuit held that civil liability under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) does not extend to those who attempt to benefit from forced labor. The amicus brief on behalf of the members of Congress detailed Congress’s swift action in response to this ruling, passing a technical and clarifying update to the civil remedy less than nine months after the decision and making plain that the Ninth Circuit had improperly narrowed the scope of civil liability under the TVPRA.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center and Catherine Sweetser, Deputy Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights and Director of the Human Rights Litigation Clinic at UCLA School of Law, filed an amicus brief on behalf of nine organizations. The amicus brief urges the California State Appellate Court to hear the petition for writ of mandamus brought by three survivors of labor trafficking. A California state court jury returned a guilty verdict in the criminal case, finding that the defendants had committed a decades-long conspiracy to commit human trafficking and wage theft in their elder care/child care businesses. The case marked one of the largest labor trafficking cases ever criminally prosecuted in California, involving more than a hundred victims. In a ruling that amici argue was contrary to the California Constitution, the trial court refused to award restitution to the victim-petitioners because they did not testify at trial. The victim-petitioners filed a writ of mandamus requesting that the appellate court reverse the trial court’s erroneous ruling. The amicus brief urges the California Appellate Court to hear the petition, arguing that the court’s invention of a testifying requirement would significantly limit crime victims’ rights to restitution and cause unnecessary trauma to survivors of human trafficking.
Freedom Network and the Human Trafficking Legal Center filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in support of a group of Filipino nurses who brought a civil rights lawsuit against New York prosecutors. The nurses filed this action after they were wrongly arrested and charged for simply quitting their jobs after alleging they were abused by their employer. Authorities in New York also prosecuted the nurses’ attorney. A New York appellate court found that the prosecution of the nurses violated the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits involuntary servitude. The amicus brief urges the Supreme Court to hear the case, arguing that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ finding of absolute immunity “sends a troubling message: abuse of legal process—a typical tactic employed by human traffickers—works.”
The Human Trafficking Legal Center, along with nine other human rights and labor rights advocates, filed this amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States. The amicus brief was filed in support of a group of Cambodian migrant workers who alleged that they were held in forced labor in Thai shrimp processing factories. The brief urged the Supreme Court to grant the workers petition for a writ of certiorari and decide key questions raised after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the Cambodian migrant workers’ case. Amici on the brief were: The Human Trafficking Legal Center, Freedom Network USA, Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum, Greenpeace USA, The Human Trafficking Institute, The International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network, Oxfam America, Share (Asia Pacific) Limited, Professor David Abramowitz and Professor Janie Chuang.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center and Equal Justice Center filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiff, a Filipino worker forced into labor in a Louisiana shipyard. The plaintiff alleges that the defendants used fraud to recruit him to work at sea and then forced him to work in a shipyard under abusive conditions for little pay. The amicus brief on behalf of the Human Trafficking Legal Center and Dr. Laura-Leigh Cameron Dow, an Australian professor, asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the district court’s incorrect holding that the plaintiff should be compelled to arbitrate his claims in the Philippines. The appeal is currently pending.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll LLP filed an amicus brief on behalf of twelve legal scholars in support of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs alleged they were trafficked as children into forced labor in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The amicus brief on behalf of the legal scholars asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the district court’s incorrect holding that extraterritorial jurisdiction does not cover such cases. This erroneous dicta in the court’s decision made this the first federal court to hold that the extraterritorial jurisdiction provided in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act does not extend to civil actions. The appeal is currently pending.
Human rights and worker rights advocates, led by Global Labor Justice – International Labor Rights Forum, filed this amicus brief to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of a group of Cambodian migrant workers who alleged that they were held in forced labor in Thai shrimp processing factories. The amicus brief pressed the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the case en banc after a three-judge panel dismissed the Cambodian migrant workers’ case. Amici on the brief were: Global Labor Justice – International Labor Rights Forum, the Human Trafficking Legal Center, Amnesty International, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc., Corporate Accountability Lab, Freedom Network USA, Greenpeace USA, Human Rights Watch, the Human Trafficking Institute, the Justice Defense Fund, the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable, the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice, the Law Office of Mary Joyce Carlson, the Migrant Workers Rights Network, Oxfam America, Share (Asia Pacific) Limited, the Solidarity Center, the State Enterprises Workers’ Relations Confederation and the Uyghur Human Rights Project.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center, Freedom Network, and Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum submitted this amicus brief asking the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the default judgment entered against Imperial Pacific International LLC, a company that built casinos in the Northern Mariana Islands. Seven construction workers from China sued the company under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, alleging forced labor and human trafficking. The district court, after multiple warnings and opportunities to correct their discovery misconduct, issued a default judgment against Imperial Pacific International for a total of $5.9 million. As stated in the amicus brief, the case presents the question whether a company that is alleged to have long perpetrated and profited from the use of forced labor can thwart liability by engaging in bad-faith discovery misconduct.
Global Labor Justice – International Labor Rights Forum, the Human Trafficking Legal Center, and the Uyghur Human Rights Project submitted this amicus brief in support of the U.S. Government’s designation of a corporation, Changji Esquel, on the “Entity List” for its involvement in forced labor in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. The amicus brief pressed the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the lower court’s denial of Changji Esquel’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center and Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP submitted this brief to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in support of a group of Cuban doctors alleging that they were forced to provide medical services in Brazil.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll LLP filed an amicus brief on behalf of twenty-one members of Congress in support of the plaintiffs who alleged they were trafficked as children into forced labor on cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center, Tahirih Justice Center, Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and ASISTA Immigration Assistance submitted this amicus brief to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of former immigrant detainees who alleged that CoreCivic, a private prison and detention company, coerced them into forced labor under threat of solitary confinement and other forms of serious harm.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center submitted this amicus brief to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of six Mexican veterinarians who alleged that Funk Dairy, Inc., an Idaho-based dairy, coerced them into forced labor under threat of deportation, paying them less than promised.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center, Tahirih Justice Center, ASISTA, Freedom Network USA, and Sanctuary for Families submitted this amicus brief to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of former immigrant detainees who alleged that GEO Group, a private prison and detention company, coerced them into forced labor under threat of solitary confinement, paying them $1.00 a day.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center, Freedom Network USA, Public Counsel, the Human Trafficking Clinic at the University of Arkansas School of Law, the Civil Litigation and Advocacy Clinic at the University of Arkansas School of Law, Professor Janie Chuang, and Professor David Abramowitz submitted this amicus brief to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of a group of Cambodian migrant workers alleging they were held in forced labor in Thai shrimp processing factories.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center, represented pro bono by Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP, submitted this brief to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in support of a domestic worker trafficked by a diplomat. The worker alleged that his diplomat employer held him in forced labor. [The domestic worker prevailed in the case. The court held the amicus brief moot after ruling on a narrow issue in the case.]