At CPW we believe our lawyers should be free to pursue public interest litigation on a pro bono basis, and we have been involved in a wide variety of significant pro bono cases over the years.

To name just a few:

• We represented the plaintiffs in Sheehan v. San Francisco 49ers, Ltd., 45 Cal. 4th 992 (2009), in which the plaintiffs challenged the 49ers' policy requiring patrons at football games to submit to a patdown search. Plaintiffs claimed the search violated the right to privacy guaranteed by the California Constitution. The California Supreme Court reinstated the case after it was dismissed by the trial court.
• We filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of Professor Karl M. Manheim in the Proposition 8 cases (Strauss v. Horton, California Supreme Court Case No. S168047, et al.). The brief argued that Proposition 8 is an unconstitutional attempt to revise rather than amend the California Constitution.
• We filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of Equality Defenders and the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders in In re Marriage Cases, 43 Cal. 4th 757 (2008). The brief argued that denying same-sex couples the right to marry violates the right to equal protection under the California Constitution. The California Supreme Court agreed, holding that the Constitution provides same-sex couples the same right to marry as heterosexual couples.
• We represented a nonprofit tenants' advocacy organization in Frye v. Tenderloin Housing Clinic, Inc., 38 Cal. 4th 23 (2006), in which the California Supreme Court held that our client was not required to register with the California State Bar as a precondition to recovering court-ordered attorney fees.
• We represented plaintiffs and friends of the court on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union in a series of cases challenging the constitutionality of the use of drug-sniffing dogs by high schools to search students and their belongings for contraband. The cases were resolved in our clients' favor.
• We obtained asylum for a Salvadoran woman and her children at a time when the number of successful asylum applications was very low.
• We represented a collection of women's health and advocacy organizations as friends of the court in the "Nuremberg Files" website case, Planned Parenthood v. American Coalition of Life Activists, 290 F.3d 1058 (9th Cir. 2002). The appeal sought affirmance of a verdict in favor of Planned Parenthood and others arising out of threats of violence directed against them by anti-abortion activists, in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the judgment of the trial court.

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