Blog of Rights
Sandra S.
Park

Sandra Park is a staff attorney with the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. She previously worked at the Legal Aid Society, Bronx Neighborhood Office, first as a Skadden Fellow and then as a staff attorney. She also clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in the Southern District of New York. A magna cum laude graduate of New York University School of Law and Harvard University, Park has also worked as a research associate at the Brennan Center for Justice.

11/30/2012
BRCA

Are Human Genes Patentable? Supreme Court Will Decide

By Sandra S. Park, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 3:54pm

Today, the Supreme Court granted our petition seeking review of an appellate court’s 2-1 ruling upholding patents on two human genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.  We represent 20 plaintiffs, including geneticists, patients, and scientific organizations representing over 150,000 pathologists and laboratory professionals.   The case is the first challenging whether human genes can be patented.

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09/25/2012
BRCA

Supreme Court: Liberate the Human Genome!

By Sandra S. Park, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 1:14pm

Today, we asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appellate court’s 2-1 ruling upholding patents on two human genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.  The case challenges patents that pose a serious barrier to using new discoveries in genetic testing and how genes influence the way cancers develop and can be treated.

BRCA1 and BRCA2 are two of the 23,000 genes in the human genome, 20 percent of which have been patented.  We all have these genes, but women with certain genetic mutations are estimated to have up to an 85 percent risk for breast cancer and 50 percent risk for ovarian cancer.  Myriad Genetics obtained patents on the “isolated” forms of the two genes, which simply means it obtained a patent on the human gene once it has been removed from the cell.  It does not matter whether the genes come from you, me or any of the other 285 million people in the U.S., or whether you have a mutation or not – the patents claim them all.  Even though laboratories around the country are fully capable of providing genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 (and were already testing patients before the patents forced them to stop), the patents in essence give a monopoly over these genes. 

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06/26/2012
BRCA

James Watson, Discoverer of DNA: Patenting Human Genes Is “Lunacy”

By Sandra S. Park, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 12:11pm

Recently, Dr. James Watson filed an amicus brief opposing gene patents in our lawsuit challenging the patents on two human genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Dr. Watson, along with Francis Crick, identified DNA’s ability to create life through its double helical structure and its information-coding sequences in 1953. His brief explains why, from the perspective of a scientist whose work laid the foundation for all genetic research, gene patenting is “lunacy.”

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04/02/2012
Sexual Assault in the Military

Note to Military: Sexual Assault Includes Rape

By Sandra S. Park, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 5:59pm

The government has turned a blind eye to these crimes has allowed them to continue, imperiling the lives of victims and degrading their service.

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03/21/2012
Gene Patenting

When Patents Don’t Equal Progress

By Sandra S. Park, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 1:50pm

Yesterday, a unanimous Supreme Court strongly reaffirmed a principle that has existed in our case law for over 150 years: laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas cannot be patented. This principle may seem obvious, but companies have sidestepped it for years by cleverly drafting applications that pass muster with the patent office.

The decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Labs. involved patents on methods of correlating blood test results and drug toxicity. The Court found them invalid because the patents do nothing more than claim a law of nature -- how a patient reacts to a drug.

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02/29/2012
Sexual Assault in the Military

Exposing the Ugly Details of the Military Sexual Violence Epidemic

By Sandra S. Park, ACLU Women's Rights Project & Rachel Natelson, Service Woman's Action Network at 5:08pm

On Monday, a federal court judge heard oral arguments in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case brought by the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN) and the ACLU seeking records from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs regarding their response to sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence in the military. While the hearing has yet to yield a final ruling, one point was clear: the government continues to refuse to disclose documents that could reveal the human toll of military sexual and domestic violence.

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02/03/2012

Breast Cancer Doesn't Discriminate Against Men

By Sandra S. Park, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 1:09pm

Today is World Cancer Day. Today we're reminded that cancer crosses all gender, race, class, and geographic lines and that we must work in unity to treat and prevent it.

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12/08/2011
Gene Patenting

Should Patents Control What Your Doctor Can Think?

By Sandra S. Park, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 4:55pm

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in an important patent case involving the right of physicians to think about how a patient has reacted to a drug, Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories.

Prometheus’ patents claim routine steps taken by doctors in order to see how a patient responds to drugs commonly used to treat automimmune disorders, such as Crohn’s disease. You can check out the precise language of the patent claims at issue here, but in short, Prometheus’ patents consist of the following steps: (1) administer a drug to a patient; (2) determine the effect of the drug by measuring the resulting metabolite levels in a patient’s blood through a standard test; and (3) think about whether to increase or decrease the drug dosage in light of how the patient responded.

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11/22/2011
Housing Discrimination

Victims of Domestic Abuse Deserve Protection, Not an Eviction Notice

By Elayne Weiss, Washington Legislative Office & Sandra S. Park, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 2:08pm

Imagine coming home to find that you are being evicted from your apartment. But it’s not because you haven’t paid rent; it’s because you are a victim of domestic violence. That’s exactly what happened to ACLU client Tanica Lewis.

In 2006, Tanica and her two daughters were kicked out of their apartment, after her ex-boyfriend violated a protective order and broke into Tanica’s apartment by smashing her windows and kicking in the door. A few days later, Tanica was told she had to vacate the premises because she failed to properly supervise her “guest.” Tanica and her daughters were forced to move into another apartment, but at a higher rent and farther from Tanica’s job.

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10/14/2011

For Domestic Violence Victims, There's No Place Like Topeka

By Lydia Devine, Women's Rights Project , Women's Rights Project & Sandra S. Park, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 11:00am

In an effort to cut budgets, the Topeka City Council has decriminalized domestic violence so the city doesn't have to spend the money to prosecute offenders.

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