Vallejos v Commissioner of Registration
The hearing on Vallejos' case began on 22 August 2011, and stretched out until the 24th. David Pannick represented the respondent, the Commissioner of Registration. During the hearing, the courtroom was packed to overflowing with lawyers, journalists, and other members of the public, who took up not just the seats in the public gallery, but also those for defendants and jury members (the latter being unoccupied as the case at hand was not a jury trial but a judicial review). Another hundred people watched the proceedings on a large-screen television in the lobby, while protestors both supporting and opposing Vallejos' case faced off outside the building without incident.
National Center for Law and Economic Justice
Since its founding, NCLEJ has won many notable cases. In 1968, NCLEJ won its first Supreme Court welfare case, King v. Smith, which prevented the states from denying public benefits to families determined to be eligible under prior federal law. In 1970, NCLEJ secured a victory in the landmark Supreme Court decision Goldberg v. Kelly, which recognized the right for welfare recipients to receive notice and a fair hearing before being deprived of their benefits. That decision is still a major tool in NCLEJ litigation today. In NCLEJ’s 1970 case Califano v. Westcott, the Supreme Court held sex discrimination in public benefits policies to be unconstitutional.