Awards
Steve has received the following awards for his legal work:
2010: American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont Cooperating Attorney Award
Steve represented a group of anti-nuclear protestors who were arrested by the Brattleboro Police Chief after unfurling a banner ("Dump Nuclear Jim") criticizing Vermont Governor James Douglas while he was giving a speech in a local theater. Steve's federal court complaint charged that the arrest violated the demonstrators' First Amendment right to freedom of speech. In a settlement with the Town of Brattleboro, the protestors received $10,000.00 in damages, and the Brattleboro Police were required to undergo training on how to deal properly with non-violent protests. The ACLU award recognized Steve for his success in representing the protestors in this and in other freedom of speech cases.
2006: American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont David W. Curtis Civil Liberties Award
Steve represented a Williamstown, Vermont sixth grader who was suspended from school for wearing a t-shirt to class that criticized President George W. Bush for alleged alcohol and drug abuse. In a federal court case ultimately decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City, the school's action was held to violate the student's free speech rights, and his disciplinary record was ordered expunged.
1999: Sierra Club Outstanding Achievement Award
The Sierra Club honored Steve for his work battling the U.S. Forest Service. Steve's federal court lawsuit resulted in an injunction that stymied the agency's plans to clear-cut a large swath of critical black bear and neo-tropical songbird habitat on the Green Mountain National Forest.
1997: Green Mountain Forest Watch Certificate of Appreciation
Steve served as General Counsel for this small but extremely effective grass-roots environmental organization that rallied public opposition to the Forest Service's clear-cutting plans for the Green Mountain National Forest and assembled a winning coalition of mainstream groups, including Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society, and the Wilderness Society, to oppose the agency in federal court.
1996: American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont Cooperating Attorney Award
The ACLU honored Steve for two cases that he lost in the Vermont Supreme Court. In the first case, the Justices ruled 3-2 that Steve's client could be convicted of disorderly conduct for repeatedly saying "F*** you" to a police officer. Steve had argued that the use of such profanity was constitutionally protected, but the court, over the strenuous objection of two dissenting Justices, decided that the client's action fell under the "fighting words" exception to the First Amendment. In the second case, the court rejected Steve's request that the Court deem unconstitutional a Vermont statute that permits any law enforcement officer to march into any drug store and conduct a warrantless search of any person's prescription records, for any reason or no reason at all. Steve argued that the statute is inconsistent with the Vermont constitution's right to privacy and preference for search warrants.
1994: Bennington County Bar Association Certificate of Recognition
In 1993, a pretrial detainee hung himself in a police lockup, and Vermont's first "right to die" case ensued. Tragically, the inmate suffered oxygen loss for 20 minutes, and according to physicians, he was in a persistent vegetative state with no reasonable hope of recovery. Steve represented the court-appointed, volunteer guardian, who after receiving guidance from physicians and the hospital ethics committee, sought court permission to remove his ward from the feeding tube that was keeping him alive. The Vermont trial courts granted the guardian's request despite fierce opposition from members of the right-to-life movement, who publicly vilified the guardian and Steve for their efforts to do what the medical profession had recommended, even comparing them to Nazis and death penalty prosecutors. Members of the ward's family finally came forward after the extensive media attention given to the dispute. Steve and the guardian, believing that the family had the right to make the treatment decision, removed themselves from the case. The family then transferred the man to a rehabilitation facility, where he ultimately died.
1992: The Nature Conservancy Stewardship Award
On an inspection tour, a staff member of the Vermont Chapter of The Nature Conservancy ("TNC") found to his horror that an adjoining landowner had cut down hundreds of trees within one of the organization's most important nature preserves, despite clearly marked boundaries. Steve did legal research that suggested that if the case went to trial, the court would have the power to order the adjoining landowner to restore the preserve by replacing the trees that had been cut with mature hardwoods of the same size and species. The cost of these "restoration damages" would have been so high that Steve was able to persuade the timber trespasser to settle the case by donating a large amount of his adjoining land to TNC, thereby substantially enlarging the nature preserve.