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Cara McClellan

@racelawjawn.bsky.social
148 followers 230 following 30 posts

Associate Practice Professor and Director Advocacy for Racial & Civil Justice Clinic at Penn Carey Law. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAu…

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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
NEW ‼️ blog post on the roots of school pushout. Many people believe the school-to-prison pipeline started in the 90’s. In fact, it dates back to Brown v. Board. Before then, suspensions rarely happened. Many thanks to the team at @legaldefensefund.bsky.social TMI for their help mining the archives.
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Required reading from @nikobowie.bsky.social Who Will Stand Up to the Supreme Court Justices? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/02/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Who Will Stand Up to the Supreme Court Justices?
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Reposted by Cara McClellan
Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 02/04/2026
had to take a quick moment to highlight the audacity of caucasity on display during the birthright citizenship Supreme Court oral argument today ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/birth...
screenshotted excerpt of the linked article, reading as follows:

Many of the justices’ questions exposed Trump’s argument as irreconcilable with the historical evidence. Other questions revealed the administration’s position as incompatible with common sense. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, for example, questioned how Sauer’s standard would apply to people who were brought to the country as slaves. Sauer recognized that the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to formerly enslaved people, but also contended that citizenship is tied to “lawful presence with intent to remain permanently.” 

Unless you’re a neoconfederate dedicated to the happily enslaved Negro myth, it’s pretty obvious that slaves did not want to be there. Barrett was skeptical, as a result, that the government’s standard would in fact grant citizenship to people who were brought to the U.S. in bondage “in defiance of laws forbidding the slave trade,” and who wanted “to escape and go back the second they can.” Returning to the present day, Jackson further questioned how the government would go about determining whether a parent intended to stay in the country anyway. “Are we bringing pregnant women in for depositions?” she asked.
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Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Imagine spending the first few weeks of your child’s life suing the Social Security Administration so your baby won’t be deported.
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Congratulations to the entire @abolitionistlawcenter.org team on the victory in Commonwealth v. Derek Lee! This is the epitome of impactful movement lawyering. abolitionistlawcenter.org/wp-content/u...
abolitionistlawcenter.org
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
The removal of the stories of enslaved people from the President's House is a dangerous attempt to rewrite history. Our motion to intervene seeks to ensure that Avenging The Ancestors Coalition (ATAC) and the Black Journey have their voices heard. www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/1... @ldf.bsky.social
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
My new article Toward an Abolition Democracy Pedagogy is officially published in the Spring 2026 issue of the Clinical Law Review and is available on CLR’s website nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A... Very grateful for all of the helpful feedback from clinicians that I admire!
nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
Vol.32/No.2 Spring 2026
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Legal Defense Fund @legaldefensefund.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
The SAVE Act makes it harder for everyone to vote. @janainelson.bsky.social joined @ms.now to discuss how the SAVE Act saves no one.
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 for Sinners and more Afrofuturism in theaters please
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Love to see the work that LEV is doing to center joy in Philly schools. They demanded recess, bathroom, and water breaks and a wellness policy and won! www.inquirer.com/education/ba...
inquirer.com
Philly kids get guaranteed recess, bathroom, and water breaks for the first time under a new school wellness policy
Some parents said they used to send their children to school in diapers because of a lack of bathroom access, but a new wellness policy "makes dignity non-negotiable," one said.
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Congratulations to @abolitionistlawcenter.org on this important legal victory. A diabetic man died in a Philly jail due to not receiving insulin. We need systems of repair not jails that torture and abuse. www.inquirer.com/news/philade...
inquirer.com
A jury awarded $1.67 million to the sons of a diabetic man who died in a Philly jail
The jurors found that Louis Jung Jr.'s November 2023 death was part of a pattern of constitutional violations under the leadership of former prisons Commissioner Blanche Carney.
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Reposted by Cara McClellan
Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
The Deputy Attorney General just rescinded the policy against no knock warrants in most cases. That policy was an important public safety measure. Restricting their use saved lives. Breonna Taylor died because of one. www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/u...
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
My shero @deborahnarcher.bsky.social giving the keynote to close out another incredible Sadie TM Alexander conference hosted by @penncareylaw.bsky.social BLSA.
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Yesterday’s Community Lawyering Panel honoring the civil rights legacy of Sadie T.M. Alexander. @phillydefenders.bsky.social @michaelcoard.bsky.social
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
‼️BREAKING: The district court has ruled that the National Park Service must reinstate the educational panels that make up the exhibit at the President’s House Slavery Memorial. Proud to represent Avenging the Ancestors Coalition and the Black Journey in their fight for truth and accurate history.
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Bravo 👏🏾 👏🏾👏🏾
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
The removal of the exhibits at the President’s House is part of a widespread effort to censor slavery from national memory. ARC Justice is proud to represent Avenging the Ancestors and the Black Journey walking tours demanding that our stories not be erased. www.inquirer.com/politics/nat...
inquirer.com
Judge chastises Trump administration attorney in hearing over dismantled President’s House exhibits
The city wants the judge to order that no more exhibits be removed and that the already-removed exhibits be protected as the litigation continues.
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
New article 🚨‼️ Forthcoming in the Clinical Law Review papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... Thanks to the clients, students, and colleagues who have shaped my pedagogy, especially comrades at @abolitionistlawcenter.org and @abolitionschool.bsky.social
papers.ssrn.com
Toward an Abolition Democracy Pedagogy in Clinical Legal Teaching
In the spring of 2022, I was hired to create and direct a racial justice clinic at a time when many law schools had publicly identified anti-racism as a substan
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Parent advocates have been fighting school pushout since the first school desegregation order went into effect. This early history can teach us so much today. I’ve been thinking about writing this article since litigating desegregation cases at @legaldefensefund.bsky.social and it’s finally out!
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
This was not the kind of conspiracy that the Reconstruction-era was intended to address. Just the opposite… www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
I serve as the Criminal Legal chair of the Philly reparations task force. Our committee has been hard at work studying the legacy of slavery & Jim Crow in Philadelphia. We want to hear from you! @abolitionistlawcenter.org @abolitionschool.bsky.social @phillydefenders.bsky.social @ysrp.bsky.social
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
This deserves more airtime. Especially in Philly. Especially given all of the tax breaks we give Comcast. Yet, they chose to fund this over so many underfunded institutions in dire need… www.inquirer.com/politics/nat...
inquirer.com
Comcast will help pay for Trump's ballroom
Neither Comcast nor the White House said how much the company will contribute to the estimated $300 million cost of the project that will replace the East Wing.
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Can’t wait to join this needed conversation at a critical time!
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Always a pleasure to join WURD. Join us this weekend for the Ed Equity Summit! m.soundcloud.com/onwurd/miche...
m.soundcloud.com
Michelle Palmer and Attorney Cara McClellan - Evening WURDs 10.20.25
Play Michelle Palmer and Attorney Cara McClellan - Evening WURDs 10.20.25 by WURD Radio on desktop and mobile. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.
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University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School @penncareylaw.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
As Chicago Public Schools advances its Black Student Success Plan amid federal inquiry, Associate Practice Prof. Cara McClellan (@racelawjawn.bsky.social) tells ChalkBeat, "What we're seeing is an attempt by the Trump administration and conservative groups to say that Students for Fair..." Read more
chalkbeat.org
‘Not built to shrink’: Chicago’s school board moves forward with initiative to improve education for Black students amid federal inquiry
The Trump administration is investigating Chicago’s Black Student Success Plan. But school board members are moving ahead, with plans to announce the members of a state-mandated Black Student Achievem...
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
This a critical case to watch in PA. triblive.com/news/pennsyl...
triblive.com
Pa. Supreme Court to hear challenge to 1968 law barring judicial review of cop firings
In 2020, Philadelphia fired a police lieutenant who sent sexual text messages and a pornographic video to two subordinates, then asked one to lie to investigators. Whether that termination stands was ...
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
New on SSRN: The legal attack on race consciousness in charitable work has distinct implications from the SCOTU’s rollback of other efforts to limit race-conscious state action. It raises questions regarding the law’s role in regulating voluntary private action. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Existing Together from the Beginning: Freedom to Contract and Black Mutual Aid
<div> In a new wave of litigation, conservative legal organizations are attempting to rely on Reconstruction-era civil rights legislation to prevent nonprofits
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
This is now a Jalen Hurts fan account.
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Reposted by Cara McClellan
Yuvraj Joshi @yuvrajjoshi.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
This essay appears as part of the symposium, "Racial Justice after SFFA v. Harvard," which I had the honor of co-chairing alongside Jamelia Morgan, @racelawjawn.bsky.social, @gowder.io, and Sheldon Bernard Lyke. You can read the full symposium issue here: northwesternlawreview.org/issues/
northwesternlawreview.org
Issues - Northwestern University Law Review
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Conservative legal groups are attempting to rely on Reconstruction-era legislation to prevent nonprofits and other privately organized orgs from engaging in race-conscious work. I explain why this is ahistorical and what we can do about it. scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/nulr/vol120/...
scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu
Existing Together from the Beginning: Freedom to Contract and Black Mutual Aid
In a new wave of litigation, conservative legal organizations are attempting to rely on Reconstruction-era civil rights legislation to prevent nonprofits, charities, foundations, and other privately o...
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Vera Institute of Justice @vera.org · 01/09/2025
Celebrating #LaborDay, a time to honor the contributions and achievements of workers, is a reminder to push for change. We must continue to fight for fair wages and conditions in prison and defend the dignity of all incarcerated people until mass incarceration is ended for good.
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Holidays are cool. But reparations ✊🏾
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Reposted by Cara McClellan
Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
The last time National Guard troops were federalized against a governors will was...to ensure desegregation. Guardsmen have been called out to quell large scale civic unrest, the last being 1992 LA Riots, but nothing that happened today comes at all close. www.nationalguard.mil/Portals/31/R...
State militias and the new, modern National Guard played active
roles in quelling the race riots and labor strikes throughout the late
19th and early 20th centuries. However, between 1867 and 1957, no
president federalized the militia to conduct or support civil
disturbance operations.
• Throughout the Civil Rights era, Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy,
and Johnson federalized the National Guard under Title 10 U.S.
Code to enforce the expansion of civil rights and to ensure public
order. Notable incidents include the desegregation of Central High
School in Little Rock in 1957, the University of Mississippi in 1962,
the University of Alabama and Alabama public schools in 1963. The
Alabama National Guard was also called into federal service for the
Selma-Montgomery March in 1965.
• Beginning with the Detroit Riots in 1967, presidents federalized the
National Guard to support law enforcement agencies in response to
civil unrest. The King Assassination Riots in 1968, the New York
Postal Strike in 1970, and the Los Angeles Riots in 1992 were the
last incidents in which a president federalized the National Guard for
civil disturbance operation
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Lawrence Solum @lsolum.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
McClellan on the Origins of the School-to-Prison Pipeline, buff.ly/Y5eHttA - Cara McClellan (University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School) has posted THE PERSISTENCE OF SCHOOL PUSHOUT AS RACIAL SUBORDINATION on SSRN.
buff.ly
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University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School @penncareylaw.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Cara McClellan tells @nytimes.com she viewed the Education Department’s shift on the mascot issue as part of a broader agenda to undermine the legacy of a law that helped dismantle Jim Crow. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/n...
nytimes.com
Under Trump, a Native American Mascot Debate Is Turned Upside Down
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Cara McClellan @racelawjawn.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
I wrote about Pres. Trump’s attempt to use school discipline as a tool for racial exclusion: thehill.com/opinion/civi...
thehill.com
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