Town Hall Seattle Civics Series

What do we do when the Supreme Court challenges the entire nation?

The 2021-2022 term of the Supreme Court was arguably one of the most tumultuous in U.S. history. Over three days in June of 2022, the conservative supermajority overturned the constitutional right to abortion, possibly opening the door to reconsidering other major privacy rights. The Court also limited the authority of the EPA, loosened restrictions on guns, and embraced originalism, a legal theory asserting that the constitution should be interpreted by its original intent instead of in the context of current times.

In The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America, attorney and former White House speechwriter Michael Waldman explores what the term means for thousands of cases — and millions of Americans. He examines past, present, and future, drawing deeply on history to examine other times when the Court controversially veered from the will of the majority, inciting anger and backlash among the people. Waldman also analyzes important new rulings and their implications for the law and American society, and argues that these major decisions — and the next wave to come — will have enormous ramifications for everyone in this country.

With the leaked Roe v. Wade opinion, the first Black woman justice sworn in, and the public infighting between justices front and center in our view, Waldman previews the 2022–2023 term and how the Supreme Court is only beginning to reshape politics.

Michael Waldman is president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to revitalize the nation’s systems of democracy and justice. He was director of speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1999 and is the author of The Second Amendment: A Biography and The Fight to Vote. Waldman was a member of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court. A graduate of Columbia College and NYU School of Law, he comments widely in the media on law and policy.

Prof. Porter (or Liz Porter) received her J.D. from Columbia Law School. In 2002-2003, she served as a law clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Supreme Court. Now serving as the James W. Mifflin Professor of Law at the University of Washington School of Law, Prof. Porter teaches and writes about civil litigation and the Supreme Court. She also co-directs UW’s Ninth Circuit Pro Bono Appellate Advocacy Clinic.

Students today face a barrage of stressors that impact every corner of their lives, from academic and social stress to family dynamics and personal trauma. The added layers of non-inclusive school environments, along with the unique challenges of immigrant and first-generation students, only contribute to students’ stress and anxiety.

In their new book, Education Across Borders, educators and co-authors Patrick Sylvain, Jalene Tamerat, and Marie Lily Cerat contended that the practices and values in the U.S. educational system contribute to stress and put many children and families at a disadvantage — in particular, those with diversity in language, culture, and socioeconomic status. With a focus on Haitian and Dominican students in the U.S., the authors drew on their experiences to address racial inequities in the classroom and shared strategies that can create an inclusive classroom environment. Together, they explored how language policies and social justice intersect, how educators can use culturally-relevant teaching to enrich curriculum, and how teachers can support the needs of immigrant and first-generation students in the classroom.

Patrick Sylvain is a Haitian-American writer, essayist and poet, and instructor of Haitian language and culture at Brown University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He has been published in several anthologies, magazines, and reviews, including African American Review, Agni, American Poetry Review, Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, Haitian Times, and Ploughshares.

Jalene Tamerat is a leader in K–12 education whose work focuses on the preparation of teachers who are able to respond to the instructional and civic needs of diverse urban youth. She began her career in education in 2003 as a classroom teacher in the Boston Public Schools and has most recently served as the dean of a Boston-area residency and master’s program for aspiring teachers.

Marie Lily Cerat is Associate Director of the CUNY Haitian Studies Institute at Brooklyn College and teaches with Africana Studies Department. Prior to her career in higher education, Dr. Cerat served as a Bilingual Haitian Creole educator with the New York City Department of Education and a Resource Specialist with the Haitian Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center (HABETAC) of the New York State Education Department Office of Bilingual Education. She is the co-founder of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, which was established in 1992 to provide ESL and adult literacy instruction to Haitian immigrants and refugees.

Danielle McKoy is a passionate activist in the national prison reform and racial school integration movements, as well as a lifelong educator. From battling homelessness to excelling at Princeton University, she leverages her exceptional personal story and expertise in advocacy, writing, and leadership development to lead equity movements on a local, national, and global scale. She is a cofounder of New York City’s inaugural Alliance for School Integration & Desegregation.

Buy the Book: Education Across Borders: Immigration, Race, and Identity in the Classroom (Race, Education, and Democracy) (Paperback) from Third Place Books

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Segregation in America—the incessant kind that continues to dog our major cities and has contributed to so much recent social strife—is the byproduct of explicit government policies at the local, state, and federal levels, researcher Richard Rothstein argues. He believes this is especially true for the racial segregation in our neighborhoods.

In this presentation with the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County, Rothstein joined us to share findings from his book The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. With an eye to how the structural conditions established by 20th century federal policy endure to this day, Rothstein explored the legacy of discriminatory practices.

Following his talk, Rothstein joined a panel of local experts to discuss how both the history of colonization and the history of redlining manifest in Seattle’s housing crisis, as well as considering both current and proposed housing policies. Moderated by Seattle Foundation’s Michael Brown, the panel features Colleen Echohawk of Chief Seattle Club, Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, and Councilmember Claudia Balducci. Don’t miss this essential and timely conversation about how the history of neighborhood segregation impacts Seattle today.

Richard Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute and a Fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He lives in California, where he is a Fellow of the Haas Institute at the University of California-Berkeley.

Colleen Echohawk is the Executive Director of the Chief Seattle Club, a nonprofit dedicated to the needs of Native American and Alaska Native people who are experiencing homelessness in Seattle. She is an enrolled member of the Kithehaki Band of the Pawnee Nation and a member of the Upper Athabascan people of Mentasta Lake. She also founded the Coalition to End Urban Native Homelessness.

Teresa Mosqueda is Budget Chair of the Seattle city council, elected in 2017. Her top priority on City Council is promoting healthy communities, lifting up working families, and creating more affordable housing for all residents through the city. She chairs the Housing & Finance Committee, and is a member of the National League of Cities.

Claudia Balducci is Chair of the King County Council. She is a leader in transportation and affordable housing, and a strong advocate for education and the arts. She serves as chair of the Sound Transit Board’s System Expansion Committee, vice president of the Puget Sound Regional Council, and chair of the County’s Affordable Housing Committee.

Michael Brown is the Chief Architect of Civic Commons at the Seattle Foundation, a regional civic infrastructure aimed at uniting more community voices in decision-making to advance racial and economic equity. He has led efforts to tackle complex challenges in the areas of affordable housing, economic and racial equity, policy, and advocacy.

This event is part of Affordable Housing Week, and is supported by West Coast Poverty Center, Seattle for Everyone, Pacifica Law Group, and Whatcom Housing Alliance.

Buy the Book: https://www.elliottbaybook.com/book/9781631494536

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County.

On May 25, 2020, the world was indelibly changed by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Floyd’s death set off a series of protests in the United States and around the world, awakening millions to the dire need for reimagining this country’s broken system of policing. But behind a face that would be graffitied onto countless murals, and a name that has become synonymous with civil rights, there is the reality of one man’s stolen life: a life beset by suffocating systemic pressures that ultimately proved inescapable.

Placing George Floyd’s narrative within the larger context of America’s enduring legacy of institutional racism, His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice is a landmark biography by prizewinning Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa. Drawing on over 400 interviews, including with friends and family who knew him best and those who were with him when he died, the book offers a poignant, empathetically reported, and moving exploration of George Floyd’s America.

Robert Samuels joins us at Town Hall to discuss how systemic racism shaped Floyd’s life and legacy — from his family’s history in the tobacco fields of North Carolina, to ongoing inequality in housing, education, health care, criminal justice, and policing — telling the singular story of how one man’s tragic experience brought about a global movement for change.

Robert Samuels is a national political enterprise reporter for The Washington Post who focuses on the intersection of politics, policy, and people. He previously wrote stories about life in the District for the Post’s social issues team. Samuels joined the Post in 2011 after spending nearly five years working at the Miami Herald.

Hugo Black, Glen Taylor, George McGovern, Robert F. Kennedy, Herbert Lehman, Theodore Francis Green, Al Gore, William Proxmire, Sherrod Brown. Did you know the common thread is a desk?

Current desk occupant and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown joined us to share stories of those who preceded him. Utilizing anecdotes and history from his book Desk 88: Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America, he presented eight portraits of political courage that tell the triumphs and failures of the Progressive idea over the past century. He argued that despite their flaws and frequent setbacks, each made a decisive contribution to the creation of a more just America. With recollections from his own career, Brown asserted that the Progressive idea is not dead—that we can renew the social contract and create a new era in which Americans of all backgrounds can thrive.

Sherrod Brown is Ohio’s senior US senator. He has dedicated his life in public service to fighting for what he calls “the dignity of work”—the belief that hard work should pay off for everyone. He has been a strong advocate for health care reform measures and is a leading advocate of education. You can follow the Senator on Twitter and Facebook.

Dow Constantine is serving his third term as King County Executive. A former member of the King County Council and the Washington State Senate and House of Representatives, and a three-time graduate of the University of Washington, Dow is focused on meeting two of our greatest generational challenges: building equity and opportunity, and confronting climate change.

Buy the Book: https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781250758101

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