Mar 2022 – “Women and the US Judiciary”

Tuesday, March 22, 2022, 12:00-1:30 pm via Zoom
Registration Link

CWI is delighted to celebrate this Women’s History Month with President Biden’s nomination of the first Black Woman, Ketanji Brown Jackson, to the Supreme Court. CWI’s Vice President Legal Affairs, Jeanette Lim Esbrook, has issued this statement to endorse her confirmation. The Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues is an organization that addresses progress towards greater equity for women and girls in economic, health, education, social, political, and legal issues. Accordingly, we wholeheartedly support President Biden’s nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court of the United States. This highest Court of the land should have representation of all citizens and the nomination of a Black woman to the Court is long overdue. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is eminently qualified as a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law school. She is a respected and experienced jurist with a life-long dedication to public service. We urge the Senate to confirm Judge Jackson to establish a Court that represents all citizens of the United States.

Kimberly Humphrey, Senior Legislative Counsel at the Alliance for Justice will provide an overview of the demographics of women in the US Judiciary and the strong progress of advocates and the Biden administration in adding women of color, and particularly Black women, to the federal bench. She will also discuss the ways in which the judiciary might be made more gender-conscious and supportive of feminist goals. Kimberly leads and coordinates federal advocacy to elevate the importance of the courts and judicial nominations for AFJ. She previously worked as a senior policy analyst in Baltimore’s Dept of Human Resources and as a Legislative Counsel for ACLU of Maryland. She has a J.D. from Catholic Univ. and an undergraduate degree from Spelman College.

Samantha Cyrulnik-Dercher, Senior Manager of the Fair Courts Program at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund will update us on the vetting and confirmation process for Judge Jackson including the role of Civil Rights groups in supporting her confirmation. Sam previously served as Federal Policy Director of SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, where she advocated for LGBTQ-inclusive comprehensive sex education. She has been featured in Esquire, Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post, and other national publications. Before SIECUS, Sam spent four years in the office of then-Congressman Tim Walz (MN-01), working her way from intern to Acting Legislative Director. Sam earned her B.A. in political science from The George Washington Univ. and her J.D. from American Univ. Washington College of Law.

Erinn D. Martin, Director of Nominations and Cross-Cutting Policies, National Women’s Law Center, had been scheduled to speak, but will be unavailable as she has been invited to attend Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic hearings.

Please join us at this noon ET zoom meeting by registering here.