Tulane Law First Amendment Clinic Settles Case Challenging Access to Reading Material
The Tulane Law School First Amendment Clinic recently settled a lawsuit challenging access to books and other reading materials for those incarcerated at the Tensas Parish Detention Center (TPDC).
The clinic represented Thomas Normand, who first contacted the clinic in 2024 after his and his peers’ repeated requests for access to books and other reading materials were denied. According to the lawsuit, individuals incarcerated at TPDC had no access to reading materials, because there was no functioning library and books sent through the mail were returned. The lawsuit alleged that these practices violated their First Amendment right to receive information.
Over the course of the litigation, five Tulane Law student attorneys, working across three academic years under faculty supervision, handled all aspects of the case. Their work included drafting the complaint, arguing the motion for preliminary injunction in federal court, questioning witnesses, propounding and reviewing discovery, and drafting a motion for summary judgment. The lawsuit was originally filed in December 2024 by former First Amendment Clinic Director Katie Schwartzmann and outgoing Stanton Fellow Annie Cleveland.
After years of work, the District Court granted Mr. Normand’s preliminary injunction, requiring TPDC to publish and make available a policy enabling men to request publications and access the prison library.
“I deeply valued my time working on Mr. Normand’s case, not only for how I learned about the additional procedural challenges that prison litigation entails, but also because I saw firsthand the importance of protecting the First Amendment Rights of people like Mr. Normand,” Henry Solotaroff-Webber said, who worked on the case as a student attorney and has now joined the clinic as the Stanton Legal Fellow.
This win comes on the heels of another recent win by the First Amendment Clinic, in which they secured a solid victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
The Tulane First Amendment Clinic, established with funding by the Stanton Foundation in 2020, has a goal to defend and advance First Amendment rights through litigation and advocacy, while providing law students with hands-on, real-world legal experience. Clinic students handle complex constitutional litigation while still in law school, giving them the opportunity to brief and argue cases before one of the nation's federal appellate courts while advocating for First Amendment rights.
