NAWJ Monthly Update February 2014

Keynote Speaker
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice

Register online here or download and complete the registration form here.
Conference registration fees:
$425 for NAWJ Members ($375 before February 13)
$525 for Non-Members Judges ($475 before February 13)
$325 Guest Rate (Guests are spouses and children of conference attendees.)

Room Reservations: Click here or call (202) 429-0100.
NAWJ Rate*: $199/night, plus applicable taxes, single or double occupancy, available until February 24, 2014
* The NAWJ block usually sells out. Reserve today to ensure a place at the Westin.

CONFERENCE CHAIR
Hon. Anna Blackburne-Rigsby

HOST COMMITTEE CHAIRS:

Barbara L. Johnson, Esq., Partner, Paul Hastings LLC
Beverly L. Perry, Esq. Pepco Holdings, Inc (Retired)
Grace E. Speights, Esq., Managing Partner, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP

THURSDAY, MARCH 13*
12:00-1:30 PM	Congressional Women's Caucus Luncheon Meeting on Capitol Hill Celinda Lake, President, Lake Research Partners Martha Bergmark, Executive Director, Legal Civil Aid Hub
2:15-5:00 PM	Private Lecture and Tour of the Archives Exhibit "Record of Rights" Exhibit Reviews: Click here for Washington Post, here for New York Times
5:30-7:30 PM	Reception at Venable, LLP
FRIDAY, MARCH 14*
9:00-10:15 AM	Plenary on Federal Regulatory Issues Mignon Clyburn, Acting Chairwoman, Federal Communications Commission Patrice Ficklin, Assistant Director, Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, Consumer Finance and Protection Bureau Colette Honorable, Chairman, Arkansas Public Services Commission; President, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners
10:30-11:45 AM	Plenary on the Affordable Care Act Kim Horn, President, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc. Dora Hughes, Esq., Senior Policy Advisor, Sidley Austin LLP
12:00-1:30 PM	KEYNOTE LUNCHEON U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Department of Justice
3:00 PM	THE U.S. SUPREME COURT Private Lecture at the U.S. Supreme Court
4:00-4:45 PM	(Supreme Court) A Theatrical Reading of Janet Langhart-Cohen's play "Anne & Emmett" The play is based on the story of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl, who was a victim of the Holocaust, and Emmett Till, a young African-American boy murdered in the American South during segregation and the "Jim Crow" era.
4:45-5:30 PM	(Supreme Court) Implicit Bias and Access to Justice Issues Following the play, there will be a panel discussion with the author and several experts on the topic of Implicit Bias and Access to Justice. Janet Langhart-Cohen, President, Langhart Communications, Inc. Dr. Rohini Anand, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Diversity Officer, Sodexo Dr. William Meinecke, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
5:30-7:30 PM	Reception at the Supreme Court Hosted by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
SATURDAY, MARCH 15*
8:30 AM-12:00 PM	ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR LABOR TRAFFICKING VICTIMS Opening Remarks: Hon. Anna Blackburne-Rigsby, NAWJ President Hon. Elizabeth Lee, Chair of the NAWJ Subcommittee on Human Trafficking Profile of Types and Dynamics of Labor Trafficking John Martin, Director, Human Trafficking and the State Courts Collaborative Scott Santoro, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Access to Justice Challenges and Forums for Addressing Labor Trafficking Anne Breen-Greco, ABA Taskforce on Human Trafficking Hon. Virginia Kendall, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois Martina Vandenburg, The Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center Tools for Addressing Labor Trafficking Professor Chris Johnson, ABA Business Law Section, Taskforce on Human Trafficking Hon. Virginia Kendall, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois Hon. Arline Pacht, NAWJ Subcommittee on Human Trafficking Martina Vandenburg, The Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center Hon. Joan Churchill, Immediate Past-President, NAWJ
12:00-4:00 PM	NAWJ Board of Directors Meeting Informal Reception

Politics on the Bench - a Judge's View of Partisanship at Play

As more state courts across the United States render difficult decisions about same-sex marriage, the political firestorm that engulfed the Iowa Supreme Court three years ago over its marriage ruling is receding in public memory.

The Iowa episode has currency today, however, especially given soaring special-interest spending in judicial elections that threatens to turn judges into politicians-in-robes. My experience at the center of the Iowa storm, meanwhile, has only strengthened my own belief in the importance of keeping politics out of the courtroom.

In 2010, Iowa voters removed two colleagues and me from the court in a retention (yes-or-no) election. Well-funded out-of-state groups and other critics fueled the ouster drive, decrying a unanimous 2009 court ruling. That decision held an Iowa statute denying civil marriage - and the benefits flowing from that status - to same-sex couples violated their right to equal protection under the Iowa Constitution. Following the ruling, the members of the court were attacked as activist judges and members of a ruling class.

Public debate about the merits of court decisions is a healthy aspect of a democratic society, yet the unprecedented Iowa ouster campaign delivered a message of intimidation and retaliation. That message is utterly inconsistent with the concept of a judiciary charged with the responsibility to uphold the constitutional rights of all citizens, not just the constitutional rights of the majority.

Unfortunately, this effort to politicize impartial courts is not receding. A report just released by two nonpartisan groups, Justice at Stake and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, finds that in the 2011-2012 judicial election cycle nationwide, TV advertising rose to a record $33.7 million, and special-interest groups and political parties spent a record $24.7 million toward this advertising and other election materials.

Keynote Speaker:
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
(She will speak during Saturday night's Banquet Gala and Sunday's Farewell Brunch panel.)

Wednesday Morning Optional Tours:
From 10:30 am to 1:30 pm, conference attendees may take advantage of an opportunity to tour either the International Border
or the Unaccompanied Immigrant Minors Camp.

Register online here, or download and fax this registration form.
Conference registration fees:
$595 for NAWJ Members ($550 before March 15)
$525 for Members who are First-Time Attendees
$695 for Non-Members Judges
$575 Guest Rate

Room Reservations: Click here or call (619) 239-2200.
NAWJ Rate: $219/night, plus applicable taxes, single or double occupancy

CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS
Hon. Tamila E. Ipema • Hon. Margie G. Woods

Taken together, the diversity effort is critical in creating "basis for public confidence" in the judiciary, said Federal Judges Association President Margaret McKeown, a sitting appeals court judge in California appointed by Clinton. "The inevitable question always is, 'Well, do you think it will make a difference in the outcome of the case?'" McKeown said. "And my response is, in large part, no. It may make a difference in how one perceives an issue, the experience one brings to the table and the background one brings to thinking about a question but it doesn't necessarily change the outcome."

THANK YOU!