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SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The First Amendment Coalition welcomes Shahana Farooqi as a Legal Fellow. Farooqi is a recent law graduate from the University of California, Berkeley.
As a legal intern at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, Farooqi wrote federal Freedom of Information Act and state freedom of information requests for journalists and activists. She also has experience working on FOIA lawsuits and researching state and federal agencies’ freedom of information policies.
As a law clerk at the Council on American-Islamic Relations National Legal Defense Fund, she filed public records requests under Texas, Arizona, Ohio, and Kentucky law. She also wrote a memorandum on First Amendment issues in a lawsuit challenging the Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Executive Order GA-44 on the basis that it suppressed protected political speech and penalized peaceful student demonstrations. Her memo evaluated whether the affected students could establish an injury-in-fact for chilled speech in a pre-enforcement challenge to EO GA-44.
Her freedom of information work intersected with First Amendment issues at CAIR when she drafted FOIA requests on behalf of Muslim women whose hijabs were forcibly removed while detained in federal and local custody, leading to policy changes as at two correctional facilities to accommodate religious head coverings.
“Shahana’s experience in freedom of information and free expression issues is precisely what FAC needs to continue holding government agencies accountable,” said FAC Legal Director David Loy. “She understands what reporters and others face when agencies stonewall, and she knows how to turn that into effective legal action. We are thrilled to have her on our team.”
Farooqi is not yet licensed to practice law. She is applying for membership to the California Bar.