Equally American: Civil Rights in U.S. Territories

Please join APALSA, NALSA, CRP, ACS, and CDO in welcoming Neil Weare YLS '08, founder of Equally American!

Equally American: Civil Rights in U.S. Territories

A Conversation with Neil Weare

Monday, April 15 @ 12:10PM | SLB 124

Come hear from Neil about his journey founding a non-profit and working on civil rights litigation related to achieving equal rights in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands. 

Check out Equally American's work, including Fitisemanu v. United States, a case in D. Utah. Mr. Fitisemanu was denied his right to vote in Utah based on a discriminatory federal law that labels him a "national, but not a citizen" because he was born in American Samoa. Neil and Equally American hope to overturn the Insular Cases - a line of cases at the Supreme Court which extended U.S. sovereignty to territories without requiring the full extension of constitutional rights. Read more about the importance of his work here.

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Neil Weare is a civil rights attorney and non-profit entrepreneur committed to achieving equal rights for Americans living in U.S. territories. Raised in the U.S. territory of Guam, Neil worked for Guam’s non-voting Delegate Madeleine Bordallo prior to attending Yale Law School. In February 2015, Neil argued Tuaua v. United States before the D.C. Circuit, making the case for equal citizenship in U.S. territories.  

Outside of his territorial advocacy, he advises a wide range of non-profit organizations as an associate at Loeb & Loeb LLP and was previously an attorney at Trister, Ross, Schadler & Gold, PLLC. Prior to founding Equally American, Neil was Litigation Counsel and Supreme Court Fellow at Constitutional Accountability Center. Neil clerked on the Alaska Supreme Court for Justice Morgan Christen, now a Judge on the Ninth Circuit. He was also a Thomas Emerson Fellow at David Rosen & Associates in New Haven, Connecticut. As a law student, Neil successfully argued CCJEF v. Rell, a landmark case before the Connecticut Supreme Court recognizing a right to adequate education for Connecticut schoolchildren. His commentary has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN.com, the Huffington Post, and other media outlets. Neil also competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics