After a busy year, University of Minnesota Law School ACS Chapter is honored to be recognized as Student Chapter of the Week.
In the fall semester, the chapter began with a blockbuster event with United States Senator Tina Smith to discuss the impact of the Dobbs decision. They then moved to a Tribal Law event to discuss the Haaland v. Brackeen case concerning ICWA in front of the Supreme Court. Finally, they volunteered as a group at Second Harvest Heartland’s food bank.
In the spring semester, they began with a Progressives in Private Practice career panel for students wanting to do plaintiff-side work in private practice. They then hosted an event on State Constitutional Law with Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Paul Thissen. Finally, they discussed cases like Merrill v. Milligan and Moore v. Harper in a “Making the Case for Democracy” panel led by the Brennan Center’s Dan Weiner.
Throughout the last year, ACS at Minnesota Law has focused on building connections with other chapters in Minnesota. To that end, Minnesota Law’s chapter spearheaded a well-attended Happy Hour with all four Minnesota chapters (three student chapters and the Twin Cities professional chapter) in April to build community among our collective members.
The chapter is led by President Tyler Blackmon, and the board includes Anthony Benz, Madelyn Nelson, David Lindgren, Cyrus Aiken, Nolan Meghrouni-Brown, and Janelle Walkden. The faculty advisor for the chapter is former Justice Sotomayor clerk and current Minnesota Law Professor Elizabeth Bentley
In large part due to ongoing attendance issues, the Senate has made limited progress on judicial nominations in recent weeks, with only three confirmations since March 16. As of April 6, there are still 18 Article III nominees pending on the Senate floor, waiting for cloture and confirmation votes.
With the Senate on recess, the earliest there could be any movement on judicial nominees is the week of April 17, when the recess is over. Numerous reports have indicated that Senator Fetterman intends to return to the Senate that week as well. This will help alleviate some of the attendance issues in the Democratic Caucus.
As of April 6, there are 99 Article III vacancies, 74 of which are current. There are 36 pending nominees: 18 waiting for floor votes, 12 waiting to be reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 6 waiting for hearings before the Committee. To date, 119 Article III judges have been confirmed during the Biden-Harris Administration.
On the Bench will return when the full Senate is back from the April recess and judicial nominations activity resumes.
With several continued absences in the Democratic Caucus, the Senate made little progress on judicial nominations this week. As of this writing, Magistrate Judge Matthew Brookman (S.D. Ind.) has been the only confirmation of the week. He was confirmed in a voice vote. This leaves 18 nominees pending on the Senate floor, awaiting cloture and confirmation votes.
The Senate is set to go on a two-week recess and will not return to session until April 17. This means there will be no more confirmations for nearly three weeks.
As of March 30, there are 99 Article III vacancies, 73 of which are current. There are 36 pending nominees: 18 waiting for floor votes, 12 waiting to be reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 6 waiting for hearings before the Committee. To date, 119 Article III judges have been confirmed during the Biden-Harris Administration.
The Boston University School of Law ACS Chapter is honored to be recognized as Student Chapter of the Week!
The BU Law chapter planned and hosted ten events related to voting registration and protection, judicial accountability, reproductive rights, constitutional reform, criminal record sealing, wrongful convictions, and marriage equality. This year’s executive board successfully restarted the chapter, after a couple of years of post-pandemic inactivity, and significantly increased its membership and community involvement.
BU Law ACS had events in that fall that featured Professors James Fleming, Aziza Ahmed, and Gary Lawson on the future of substantive due process after Dobbs. Later, the chapter collaborated with the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts to register law students to vote and request absentee ballots. The chapter then hosted Common Cause’s Election Protection training, enabling chapter members to volunteer on election day as Election Protection Monitors.
The chapter also hosted a discussion on judicial accountability with Professor Robert Tsai and Legal Accountability Project President and Founder, Aliza Shatzman. They concluded the fall semester by hosting a discussion on the dangers of a constitutional convention with ACS President and former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold and co-author Peter Prindiville.
This spring, BU Law ACS co-hosted a criminal record sealing training, run by New England Law. The chapter then hosted Northeastern University Professor Daniel Medwed and New England Innocence Project’s Exoneree Network Director, Sean Ellis, who spent nearly 22 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, for a conversation about wrongful convictions.
Later this spring, the BU Law ACS chapter is excited to co-sponsor a discussion on marriage equality with Yale Law Professor William Eskridge. The chapter wishes to thank all of its members and its faculty advisor, Professor Jessica Silbey, for their part in making this such a successful year.
With several absences in the Democratic Caucus, the Senate made little progress on judicial nominations this week. As of this writing, Magistrate Judge Gordon Gallagher (D. Colo.) has been the only confirmation of the week. He was confirmed in a 53-43 vote. This leaves 19 nominees pending on the Senate floor, awaiting cloture and confirmation votes.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing this week. The hearing featured 2 Article III nominees: Judge Amanda Brailsford (D. Idaho) and Magistrate Judge Kato Crews (D. Colo.). Both nominees are eligible for a committee vote.
Earlier this week, the White House announced the latest slate of judicial nominees. The slate featured 4 Article III nominees: Jeremy Daniel (N.D. Ill.), Magistrate Judge Brendan Hurson (D. Md.), Magistrate Judge Matthew Maddox (D. Md.), and Darrel Papillion (E.D. La.).
As of March 23, there are 100 Article III vacancies, 73 of which are current. There are 37 pending nominees: 19 waiting for floor votes, 12 waiting to be reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 6 waiting for hearings before the Committee. To date, 118 Article III judges have been confirmed during the Biden-Harris Administration.
Mary Hanna-Weir, Chair, ACS Bay Area Lawyer Chapter Deputy County Counsel, County of Santa Clara
Mary Hanna-Weir (she/her) Chair, ACS Bay Area Lawyer Chapter Deputy County Counsel, County of Santa Clara
Growing up, I was obsessed with fairness—for myself and for others. Maybe that was mostly because I’m a middle child, but I like to think that drive was deeper and a sign of more profound moral compass. By the time I was finishing high school, that passion became a drive to dedicate my career and my life to civil rights activism. But it wasn’t until a few years into graduate school for sociology, where I studied social movements and social inequality, that I finally realized that so many of the people I admired throughout the history of civil rights activism and whose careers I wanted to emulate were lawyers. So off to law school I went.
In 2010, when I landed a position at the Program Legal Group for the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, I thought to myself, “I have arrived. I am doing what I always wanted.” Working at OCR was the greatest honor of my life and an opportunity to do incredible and impactful work. But as our national politics began to turn in the ramp up to the 2016 election, I realized that I needed to get more involved locally. I managed a friend’s local re-election campaign, which led me to volunteering with a statewide organization in California that seeks to recruit progressive women to the state legislature. I joined the board for California Common Cause. That was also when I applied to join the Bay Area Lawyer Chapter Board for ACS.
The network of ACS had already supported me throughout my career, mostly through the friendships I made and sustained by attending National Convention. But through BALC, I have deepened my network and had so many amazing opportunities to put together interesting programming and events. We are a geographically large chapter, with board members from Marin to San Jose, but we strive to be a strong support network nonetheless. Through BALC, I learned about and eventually landed in mid-2018 at the Office of the County Counsel for the County of Santa Clara. I still do civil rights and education work for that office, but I have the opportunity to make a deeper local impact as counsel for our county elections official.
But more importantly, through BALC I have been more connected to ACS National as well. We have sometimes been a bit of a rabble-rousing chapter, pushing the organization to do more and say more about the progressive values we share. Through those efforts, and in partnership with so many across the country, ACS is living into its mission more and more each day. I am energized by ACS’ increasing commitment to racial justice and to leadership in the profession on diversity, equity, and inclusion especially in the judiciary. As a member of ACS’ #MeToo Task Force, I have partnered with leaders across the country to host listening sessions, gather best practices, and plan programming for National Convention to continue to address the problem of sexual harassment in the legal profession. I am excited about all we can do together.
In the end, being obsessed with fairness is just right for a civil rights lawyer and is at the core of ACS as well. We can do so much more together to support the progressive mission of ACS and the promise of a multi-racial, representative democracy.
After a busy year, University of Minnesota Law School ACS Chapter is honored to be recognized as Student Chapter of the Week.
