Joshua McDaniel

Native American organizations, religious minority groups and legal scholars on Monday urged the Ninth Circuit to temporarily block a federal land swap that would enable…

A Harvard Law program will join the ACLU of Nebraska as counsels in a lawsuit against Cody Kilgore Unified Schools – a suit that stems from cutting Native American children’s hair. A Cody Kilgore employee allegedly cut two children’s hair for a lice check without their parents’ permission in spring 2020. The family, members of the Lakota tribe, believe hair is a sacred symbol. A year later, the Nebraska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on behalf of the family – alleging first amendment violations. The lawsuit caught the Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic's attention. “We are proud to team up with the ACLU of Nebraska on this important case," said Josh McDaniel, the clinic's director, in a statement. "As a Clinic, we are committed to protecting the religious rights and traditions of people of all faiths — especially those with misunderstood or marginalized beliefs.”

Religion isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when looking at the Supreme Court’s latest criminal-sentencing dispute. But it’s “lurking in the background,” Joshua McDaniel said on Bloomberg Law’s Cases and Controversies podcast. Harvard Law’s religious-freedom clinic director explained what the new clinic does and how it got involved in that sentencing case, Concepcion v. United States. The clinic’s amicus brief highlighted spiritual growth and conversion as powerful evidence of rehabilitation for prisoners seeking resentencing under the First Step Act.

Dana Moore likes to get on the road by 3:30 am. It takes roughly five hours to drive from Corpus Christi to Livingston, Texas, and he tries to beat the morning traffic. He watches dawn slowly break, and stops at the same Buc-ee’s convenience store halfway on his journey to grab coffee and gas. By 8:30 he hopes to have reached the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, a prison in Livingston, where he starts his day: ministering to men on Texas’ death row. ... The ruling could potentially impact prisoners’ religious-accommodation claims more generally, adds Joshua C. McDaniel, the director of Harvard Law School’s Religious Freedom Clinic, which collaborated on a brief in support of Ramirez. Numerous organizations spanning the ideological spectrum, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops, have also filed briefs urging the court to grant Ramirez’s request.