Document Type
Article
Abstract
In this essay, the authors offer an alternative rationale for amicus practice. This rationale emerges from thier experience working on a brief in support of marriage equality that sixty-three Asian American organizations endorsed. They found that an amicus brief can be an effective tool to engage and educate community-based organizations and their constituencies, thereby helping to advance social justice issues. Their story also illustrates how amicus practice can be used to organize communities around a legal issue and to democratize the courts. In this way, even if the effect of amicus briefs on litigation outcomes may be marginal, the process of creating an amicus brief can have a very powerful impact.
Recommended Citation
Robert S. Chang and Karin Wang,
Democratizing the Courts: How an Amicus Brief Helped Organize the Asian American Community to Support Marriage Equality, 14 ASIAN PAC. AM. L.J. 22
(2009).
https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/faculty/272