Peggy Wiesenberg

19-peggy-wiesenbergPeggy Wiesenberg served as legal counsel to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the ACLU National Prison Project. Upon graduation from Northeastern School of Law, she was awarded a Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship to work in Minneapolis Legal Aid where she represented indigent individuals in government benefit, employment, landlord-tenant, consumer, juvenile and civil commitment cases and founded the Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter, one of the first shelters for battered women in the country.

At the ACLU,  Peggy managed precedent setting class action litigation addressing criminal justice issues, jail reform and prisoner’s rights nationwide including a challenge to the use of prisoners in non-therapeutic medical experimentation; conditions and closure of Colorado’s maximum security prison; the project’s first system-wide challenge to conditions in a state-wide juvenile justice system resulting in the closure of four out of six training schools and revamping of practices and policies at the remaining institutions; and a human rights challenge regarding the conditions of confinement of 5 Puerto nationalists, then the longest held political prisoners in the U.S.

At the Lawyers Committee, Peggy managed complex class action litigation addressing civil rights of minority citizens in the Commonwealth, including employment discrimination, housing discrimination, inequality in municipal services and police misconduct. After the passage of Prop 2½, she represented Concerned Minority Educators of Worcester regarding affirmative action contract provisions and minority police and fire officials before the U.S. Supreme Court reconciling seniority-based layoffs with court ordered affirmative action, prompting a political solution that saved hundreds of public sector jobs.

Serving the Commonwealth for over 25 years, Peggy worked as Deputy General Counsel for the Department of Public Health under 8 different Governors, winning awards for Leadership in Promoting Access to High Quality Screening for Breast Cancer; Making Massachusetts a National Leader in Facilitation of Accessibility to Substance Abuse Services Under the Americans With Disabilities Act; Implementation of the Emergency Room Interpreter Law and Expanding Access for Linguistic Minorities to Health Care Delivery; Providing Improved Services to the Minority Community through Increasing Minority WIC Participant Access to Neighborhood Stores including Minority Owned Businesses; Implementation of the Vital Information Partnership; and Implementation of Marriage Equality. She represented MDPH in state court and administrative litigation including patient care receiverships and license revocations, and filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Judicial Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. She drafted laws and regulations and advised state officials on a broad range of legal and policy matters. Peggy co-chaired a joint project of the Women’s Bar Association and National Lawyers Guild that established the attorney referral panel and judicial bypass procedures to provide minors with access to abortions.

As an Access to Justice Fellow, Peggy will continue her work with Quality Education for Every Student (QUEST), a grassroots organization of Boston Public School parents dedicated to promoting quality, equity and transparency in public education. Peggy will assist QUEST regarding strategies to promote equity in access to quality school programs, resources, facilities, and school policies and practices. She will draw on her experience in state government to help QUEST’s work via use of applicable laws and regulations, including the state public records law and the open meeting law. Her work with QUEST will involve working in local and national coalitions such as the Boston Educational Justice Alliance and the National Network for Public Education.