The women of Iran are not backing down
More of This
Persian pop music blasts from the speakers of our silver Peugeot as we weave through Tehran traffic. It’s a Friday in early 2007 and I’m taking advantage of winter break from school to visit my cousin who lives in Tehran. We have meticulously planned our outfits, pushing the boundaries of the required dress for women of the Islamic Republic of Iran: a colorful ‘monteau’ (tunic) as short as we can get away with, matching hijab covering our hair with as little fabric as possible
My Iranian hosts wanted to show me, an Iranian American, a good time, and so they offered one of the few pleasures afforded them in the strict Islamic Republic: a ride around town.
The boys sit in the front; girls are in the back. Normally, as an American college student, I wouldn’t bat an eyelash at the scene. But we’re dabbling in dangerous territory: unmarried women riding around with unmarried, unrelated men, listening to “haram” (un-Islamic) music, wearing haram clothes.
Read the story on Politico
New documentary shows Justice Kavanaugh is a man of anger and grievance
Less of This
Sundance attendees were surprised to find a last-minute addition to the lineup on the festival’s first night. That entry was Justice, a documentary about sexual-assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, produced by Amy Herdy and directed by Doug Liman. It premiered on Friday night to an audience of about 300, according to the Washington Post.
In 2018, after President Trump announced his nomination of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor in California, wrote a letter to Senator Diane Feinstein alleging that Kavanaugh physically and sexually assaulted her at a party in 1982 when the two were high-school students in Bethesda, Maryland. In her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ford said that Kavanaugh pinned her down, groped her, tried to remove her clothing, and put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams.
Read the story on The Cut
The Supreme Court is embarrassed once again
Speaking Of...
The Supreme Court’s stunning report Thursday on its failure to discover who leaked a draft decision reversing abortion rights last year laid bare shortfalls at the nation’s highest court, in its technology, protocols for confidentiality and overall institutional safeguards.
Further, the lack of success in discovering who was responsible raises the possibility of a security breach in the future. It already appears likely to add to the public’s distrust of the justices and accelerate the partisan rancor surrounding the court.
The justices’ two-page statement and 20-page report from Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley appear intended to demonstrate the thoroughness of the investigation, with numbers of people interviewed (126 formal interviews of 97 employees) and various forensic measures taken.
Read the story on CNN
The 50th anniversary of Roe that never was
Say It Louder
Sunday marks what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The fact that we are commemorating an anniversary that will never happen already says everything that needs saying about the weird macabre legal universe—and the weird macabre world—we currently inhabit.
Roe was never perfect; a floor as opposed to a ceiling when it came to the complex world of reproductive justice. It was always less. But Roe, for all its rickety trimester framework, and its progeny, including Casey, for all of its oozing subjective squish tests, at least created a basement—a relatively certain set of guardrails against which states, physicians, and pregnant people could form judgements about their lives; in intimate moments of personal violence, wrenching illness, joy turned to sorrow, and worse.
Roe offered limited protections, yes, but also promised clarity. This was by design.
Read the story on Slate
Pathways to Law Summit
February 10-11
The Annual Pathways to Law Summit provides an opportunity for law practitioners, educators and students to come together and exchange strategies, make connections, and participate in panels and other activities that help promote diversity in the legal profession.
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