Sandra Bland, who died in prison after being arrested for a traffic violation. Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a seven-year-old shot and killed by police during a raid. Renisha McBride, shot and killed by a homeowner when she knocked on the door of a house. Black women in America have lost their lives, and have been subjected to other horrific injustices, just as men have been. Yet America does not often remember their names.
The jury is still out (so to speak) on whether justice was served Wednesday night at Georgetown Law’s Hart Auditorium. But those who witnessed — and participated in — the Theater of Law production of a scene from Aeschylus’ Eumenides could all agree that the night was a moving and thought-provoking success.
With latest election results, at least 104 of 138 elected and appointed officials accused of sexual misconduct will be out of office, new Georgetown Law research finds.
“The last few weeks have been hard — as individuals, as a community, and as a country…” said Emily Clarke (L’20), president of the Women’s Legal Alliance at Georgetown Law. “We have been forced to grapple with questions of power, gender, credibility and integrity. Some of us have dealt with this in our classes. Watching the [Supreme Court nomination] hearings and discussing their impact. Many of us have huddled with our friends and tried to attach the right words to how we are feeling. But even more of us have sat alone, wondering how this could be happening and where we are supposed to go from here.”
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1993 — and when her colleague Justice Stephen Breyer was nominated in 1994 — there was “a true bipartisan spirit in our Congress…” she said. The late Senators Ted Kennedy and Strom Thurmond, for example, had a very good working relationship, she noted. “I hope that I will live to see that spirit of collegiality restored in our legislature.”
They say the more things change, the more they stay the same. Whether that’s the case concerning the national economy will be the topic of a day-long conference at Georgetown Law on Friday, September 28. “Ten Years After the Financial Crisis: Closing Loopholes and Avoiding Blindspots,” with a keynote by Sheila Bair, former chair of the FDIC, will attempt to answer the question of whether the economy is headed for another fall.
“Last term was a term of blockbusters, most of which fizzled out,” said Professor Irv Gornstein, as he introduced Georgetown Law’s annual Supreme Court Institute press preview on September 17. “This term, by contrast, doesn’t have any blockbusters to begin with — but I think a more accurate caption for this term is the calm before the storm. We’re headed for a whole new world, and the only real question, I think, is how far we are going to go and how fast we are going to get there.”
Nearly five hundred attendees showed up at Washington D.C.’s InterContinental Hotel on May 2 and 3 for the Women’s Forum, an event that began at Georgetown Law in the 1990s and now includes alumnae and panelists from across Georgetown University.
To hear her talk about rights for African American girls, discussing policy and speaking out on hot-button issues like gun control, one might think that Naomi Wadler is an incoming Georgetown Law student, with plans to change the world.
