Nancy Stearns Collection on Workers Right to Know Law
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Abstract
Nancy Stearns is a public interest lawyer who has specialized in constitutional and environmental law. Stearns attended law school after working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Atlanta. She worked as a staff lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights during the 1960s and 1970s, during which time she worked on a number of reproductive rights cases, including two cited in Roe v. Wade. She also worked on cases concerning sexual assault and women's self-defense, and was part of a team that sued Henry Kissinger and other officials in the Nixon Administration for the killing of journalist and filmmaker Charles Horman by the Chilean Junta. From 1981-1995 Stearns served as the head of the Toxics unit of the New York State Attorney General's Environmental Protection Bureau, during which she worked on litigation for the clean-up of toxic chemical contamination and the enforcement of the Worker Right to Know Law. The Nancy Stearns Collection on Workers Right to Know Law (dated 1980-1988) consists of materials collected by Stearns documenting the Right to Know regulations employers must provide workers concerning the hazardous chemicals with which they work. Materials in this collection include press releases, copies of the Right to Know legislation, standards compiled in the authoring of the law, and chemical fact sheets.
Biographical Note
Nancy Stearns is a public interest lawyer who has specialized in constitutional and environmental law. Stearns attended law school after working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Atlanta. She worked as a staff lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights during the 1960s and 1970s, during which time she worked on a number of reproductive rights cases, including two cited in Roe v. Wade. She also worked on cases concerning sexual assault and women's self-defense, and was part of a team that sued Henry Kissinger and other officials in the Nixon Administration for the killing of journalist and filmmaker Charles Horman by the Chilean Junta. From 1981-1995 Stearns served as the head of the Toxics unit of the New York State Attorney General's Environmental Protection Bureau, during which she worked on litigation for the clean-up of toxic chemical contamination and the enforcement of the Worker Right to Know Law. Since 1996 she has worked as an attorney in the Law Department of the New York State Supreme Court.
Source:
NYU Law. "Nancy Stearns '67 is Honored as Law Women's Alumna of the Year." https://www.law.nyu.edu/news/nancy-stearns-law-women-reproductive-rights-abramowicz-v-lefkowitz-roe-v-wade (retrieved October 12, 2022).
Arrangement
This collection has not been arranged by an archivist. The materials are arranged in the order in which they were received from the donor.
Scope and Contents
The Nancy Stearns Collection on Workers Right to Know Law (dated 1980-1988) consists of materials collected by Stearns documenting the Right to Know regulations employers must provide workers concerning the hazardous chemicals with which they work. Materials in this collection include press releases, copies of the Right to Know legislation, standards compiled in the authoring of the law, and chemical fact sheets.
Subjects
Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Nancy Stearns Collection on Workers Right to Know Law; WAG 372; box number; folder number or item identifier; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Nancy Stearns in October 2022; the accession number associated with this gift is 2022.078.
About this Guide
Processing Information
At the time of accessioning materials were rehoused in an archival box and folders, and described on the collection-level with a folder-level inventory.
