Wednesday January 20, 2020

More of This The first Black/Indian/Woman Vice President is sworn in by the first Latina Justice

More of This The first Black/Indian/Woman Vice President is sworn in by the first Latina Justice

Kamala Harris is now officially vice president of the United States, having taken her oath of office at today's inauguration ceremony. She makes history as the first woman, and the first person of Black and South Asian descent, to hold the position—one that dozens of white men have attained throughout the country's history. But she wasn't the only history-making figure at the swearing-in.

Standing opposite her on the steps of the Capitol Building, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latinx judge to sit on the nation's high court, helped the now VP recite the solemn words. Harris chose the trailblazing justice for the job, because she was inspired by her legacy and their shared background as former prosecutors—Harris for California and Sotomayor for New York--ABC News reported.

Vice President Harris chose to use two bibles for the ceremony, both of which have significant meanings for her. The first belonged to Regina Shelton, who acted like a second mother to the VP and her sister, Maya Harris. The vice president used the same bible when she swore in as California attorney general, according to ABC. The second bible belonged to the late Thurgood Marshall, a former Supreme Court justice and civil rights leader. In her memoir, Harris called Marshall one of her "greatest heroes."

Read the story on Harper's Bazaar

More of This Meet the youngest ever inaugural poet 

When Amanda Gorman, 22, recited her poem at President Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, she became the youngest inaugural poet ever in the United States and joined a small group of poets who have been recruited to help mark a presidential inauguration, among them Robert Frost, Maya Angelou and Miller Williams.

About two weeks ago, Ms. Gorman was struggling to finish a new work titled “The Hill We Climb.” She was feeling exhausted, and she worried she wasn’t up to the monumental task she faced: composing a poem about national unity to recite at a ceremony that would be watched by millions.

“I had this huge thing, probably one of the most important things I’ll ever do in my career,” she said in an interview. “It was like, if I try to climb this mountain all at once, I’m just going to pass out.”

Ms. Gorman managed to write a few lines a day and was about halfway through the poem on Jan. 6, when pro-Trump rioters stormed into the halls of Congress, some bearing weapons and Confederate flags. She stayed awake late into the night and finished the poem, adding verses about the apocalyptic scene that unfolded at the Capitol that day:

Read the story on NY Times

More of This Anonymous donor gives $40 Million to fund 50 civil rights lawyers

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund launched a $40 million scholarship program on Monday to support a new generation of civil rights lawyers, dedicated to pursuing racial justice across the South. With that whopping gift from a single anonymous donor, the fund plans to put 50 students through law schools around the country.

In return, they must commit to eight years of racial justice work in the South, starting with a two-year post-graduate fellowship in a civil rights organization.

"The donor came to us," said Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "The donor very much wanted to support the development of civil rights lawyers in the South. And we have a little bit of experience with that.”

Indeed, the LDF has been backing civil rights lawyers ever since its founding by Thurgood Marshall in 1940, during an era when Black people rarely had effective legal representation and Black students were turned away from southern universities. It funded the creation of Black and interracial law firms in several southern states in the 1960s and 1970s, and has built a network of lawyers since then.

"While without question we are in a perilous moment in this country, we are also in a moment of tremendous possibility, particularly in the South," Ifill said. "The elements for change are very much present in the South, and what needs to be strengthened is the capacity of lawyering."

Read the story on CBS News

More of This This is how we take back the Courts

Ian Millhiser is a journalist and lawyer who clerked for Judge Eric L. Clay of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

The federal judiciary will soon be the last bastion of Republican power in the federal government.

President-elect Joe Biden takes office at noon on Wednesday. He’ll be joined by a Democratic House of Representatives and, at least after Sens.-elect Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Jon Ossoff (D-GA) take their seats, a narrowly Democratic Senate. But Republicans absolutely dominate the highest levels of the federal judiciary, where they have a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court.

It appears likely, moreover, that the GOP-controlled judiciary will be a thorn in Biden’s side. Trump-appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch, for example, is already laying the groundwork to strip federal agencies of much of their power to regulate after Biden takes office, and Gorsuch almost certainly has the five votes he needs to make this happen.

The Republican Party dominates the federal judiciary in no small part due to six years of work by outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. When Justice Antonin Scalia died nearly a year before President Barack Obama left office, McConnell announced almost immediately that Obama’s Supreme Court nominee would get the cold shoulder from a Republican Senate. When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died shortly before the 2020 election, McConnell ensured that her conservative replacement, Amy Coney Barrett, would be confirmed just days before the nation voted to cast Trump out of office.

During the final two years of Obama’s presidency — the only two years of his presidency that Republicans controlled the Senate — McConnell imposed a near-total blockade on new appointments to the federal courts of appeals (often referred to as “circuit” judges). The result was that now-outgoing President Donald Trump got to fill nearly all of the judicial vacancies that came open during his presidency, plus nearly all of the appellate court seats Obama should have filled in his final two years.

Despite the fact that Obama served for twice as long as Trump, there are currently 53 active circuit judges appointed by Trump and only 50 appointed by Obama. (Obama’s judicial confirmations also got off to a fairly slow start, although they picked up considerably once the Senate changed its rules in 2013 to make it easier to confirm judges.)

Read the story on Vox

Refugee Staff Attorney Job Opportunity

PANA is hiring a full-time attorney to develop a legal program that will triage legal services for refugees and asylum seekers; develop human rights and national security impact litigation; and develop a rapid response legal infrastructure in San Diego to respond to the growing, urgent threats to Muslim and other refugee communities. Learn more here

VP Of Legal Affairs Job Opportunity

The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) seeks an experienced attorney with strong leadership skills and a passion for access to justice to join its team as Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel. Learn more here

Law in Tech Internship for Students

For 2021, the Law in Technology Diversity Collaborative will provide approximately 30-40 successful candidates with a 10-week paid internship split between a high-profile tech company and a top-tier law firm. Learn more here

Fellowship Opportunity

The MTO Fellows Program is a ten-month initiative aimed at preparing 25-40 aspiring diverse students for admission to and success in law school. The program seeks applicants from all backgrounds and strives to increase the diversity of the legal profession.Learn more here