In advance of a trip to Germany this year to interview a former business associate of Mr. el-Hage's, the lawyers said, they had filed a travel voucher seeking court approval for the trip.
"The court went out of its way to limit the context," said Clint Bolick, vice president of the Institute for Justice, a strong supporter of vouchers that filed a brief in the case.
A group of plaintiffs sponsored by the bipartisan North Carolina Association of Educators and the left-leaning North Carolina Justice Center filed a lawsuit last week, challenging the vouchers created under the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which is set to start taking applications in February.
DOJ initially filed a motion to enjoin the school vouchers program, but later backed off.
A handful of civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, filed a lawsuit on behalf of concerned Douglas County parents against the voucher in late June.
Now, civil rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit accusing Lancaster and neighboring Palmdale of unfairly singling out Latino and black residents who use Section 8 vouchers to help pay rent.
I filed away my voucher, thinking that I'd use it later in the year.
"I'll be shocked if half the money is claimed," says Howard Yellen, founder of the Settlement Recovery Center, a San Francisco-based firm that helps organizations and businesses file their voucher claims.
Perhaps because of the stringent rules, only a third of the 300 volunteers filed vouchers from their field work.
At his one-man office in Birmingham the other day, Wilson Meyers, a criminal defense lawyer, pulled out a voucher he had filed recently for representing a 32-year-old man who had been charged with capital murder and had ultimately received life without parole.
