featured GUEST - NPR Correspondent Nina Totenberg!

Civility is Shared Humanity 

As nationally recognized civility experts, Tomas Spath and Cassandra Dahnke, authors of Reclaiming Civility in the Public Square and cofounders of the Institute for Civility, believe that Civility is claiming and caring for one’s identity, needs, and beliefs without degrading someone else’s in the process. Civility is about disagreeing without disrespect, seeking common ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences, understanding biases and personal preconceptions, and teaching others to do the same. 

Respecting and Protecting our Seniors 

Too many times, the seniors in our communities become invisible. Meals on Wheels does more than just provide home delivery of healthy food for Seniors and other homebound members of the community. President and CEO of Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Penninsula and incoming State President of California Meals on Wheels Christine Winge reminds us that maintaining human connection is a critical and essential part of physical and mental health as we grow older and risk becoming more isolated.  

The Moral Call to Protect Children

After a long career in the corporate world, Beth Wilbur decided to serve at-risk children as the Executive Director of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Monterey County.  She discusses the incredible work that CASA volunteers do to support children in the foster care system and how they change lives through their efforts. CASA of Monterey County is part of a national organization that has 939 programs in 49 states and reflects the work of 80,000 volunteers serving more than 200,000 children annually.

Where to Go When the Taxman Calls. Lisa Sperow is the Executive Director of the Cal Poly Low Income Taxpayer Clinic. The clinic provides free representation to low-income taxpayers in disputes with the IRS. Many of the clinic’s clients have nowhere else to seek help when they receive frightening notices from the IRS. It is even more alarming for taxpayers who do not speak English and who are completely unfamiliar with the process and documents necessary to respond to government claims, even if the claims are in error. 

Empowering Young People. Cathy Sakimura has spent her entire professional life empowering young people, first as a youth organizer, then as the Deputy Director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and now as Executive Director of Legal Services for Children (LSC) in San Francisco.  Cathy has dedicated her life to serving children and families. She describes how each of us can make a difference in a child’s life, including donating money to LSC because it recently lost federal funding to serve immigrant children in detention.

Pro Bono Passion. Providing pro bono service to small businesses in Dallas, Texas not only persevered through the pandemic - it expanded. The innovative program developed by attorney Fawaz Bham coordinated more than 40 law firms and community organizations through a transition from in-person to remote clinics to sustain a program that has served over 25,000 clients. Bham's efforts were recognized by the 2024 American Bar Association's Pro Bono Publico Award for exceptional volunteer public service.

Climate change contributes to human rights abuses. Climate Rights International was founded by Executive Director Brad Adams. Brad and CRI believe that progress on climate change cannot succeed without protecting human rights – and the fight for human rights cannot succeed without protecting our planet against climate change. CRI works in partnership with local and international groups, activists, and affected communities to demand justice and accountability from powerful interests.

DREAM.ORG is not just a dream - It is a movement!  Nisha Anand is a driving force behind a movement for change, blending her roles as an Indian-American activist, devoted mother, and advocate for racial justice. With a firm belief in the transformative power of common ground, Nisha brings people together to make the American dream a reality for everyone. Her compelling TED talk, "The Radical Act of Choosing Common Ground," resonated with millions, igniting crucial conversations amidst today's divisive climate.

Advocating for Native American Rights, A 50+ Year Journey Still Underway  John Echohawk has served as Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) since 1977. Under John's inspired and continuing leadership, NARF has successfully asserted and defended the most important rights of Indians and tribes in hundreds of major cases, and has achieved significant results in such critical areas as tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, natural resource protection, voting rights, and Indian education.

SideBar is Looking for Leaders & Activists

If you, someone you know, or an organization you know about are leading community change, addressing humanitarian needs, or pursuing nonpartisan public policy initiatives, please contact SideBar about the possibility of being a future guest. 

Contact: mwinick@sidebarmedia.org

How Important is the Diversity of Our Appellate Courts in Defining Justice? 

Appellate courts decide what our laws mean and how they affect all aspects of our personal lives: our ability to vote, how we are policed, our religious freedom, the quality of our education, our workplaces, healthcare, immigration protections, and much more. Yet people of color remain greatly underrepresented as both appellate attorneys and judges. Juvaria Khan, founder of The Appellate Project discusses the importance of diversity of lived experience in defining equity and fairness in judicial decision-making.

Maintaining Democracy Requires Meaningful Access to Justice  Access to an ethically based justice system not only protects free and fair elections, but also impacts the rights that affect our everyday lives. In this episode of SideBar, Professor and Author Renee Knake Jefferson calls for lawyers and judges, including the US Supreme Court, to further commit to ethical access to justice. Jefferson is a law professor and an award-winning author. Her most recent book, Law Democratized: A Blueprint for Solving the Justice Crisis, hit the shelves in January 2024.

Shouldn't We Expect Transparency, Diversity, and Accountability in the Judiciary and the Legal Profession? 

Aliza Shatzman is the President and Founder of The Legal Accountability Project (LAP), a nonprofit aimed at ensuring that law clerks have positive clerkship experiences, while extending support and resources to those who do not. Through advocacy, thought leadership, and innovative legal technology, Aliza and The Legal Accountability Project  works to increase transparency, diversity, and accountability in judicial clerkships, the judiciary, and the legal profession.

A Real Right to Vote: How a Constitutional Amendment Can Safeguard American Democracy  Professor Richard L. Hasen is an internationally recognized expert in election law, writing as well in the areas of legislation and statutory interpretation, remedies, and torts. He is co-author of leading casebooks in election law and remedies. Hasen served in 2020 as a CNN Election Law Analyst and as an NBC News/MSNBC Election Law Analyst in 2022. He directs UCLA Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project.

Protecting Native American Rights and Tribal Sovereignty Since the mid to late 1980’s, an increasingly conservative federal bench has made it more difficult to defend Indian rights under existing treaties and federal law. John Echohawk is an attorney and Executive Director of the  Native American Rights Fund (NARF) defending Native American tribes, organizations, and individuals on issues such as tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, natural resource protection, voting rights, and Indian education.

We (Who Are Not) the People: Interpreting the Undemocratic Constitution  Law Professors Joy Milligan and Bertrall Ross discuss how we should interpret a Constitution that was not written for “We the people”. It excluded women and racial minorities and all but a few amendments were adopted amidst profoundly undemocratic conditions in which the majority of the population did not participate. They challenge us to address the fundamental undemocratic nature of the U.S. Constitution.

Female Genius: How Women Influenced the Constitution  Author and Law Professor Mary Bilder discusses the amazing story of Eliza Harriot, a rare female public lecturer who delivered a Univ. of Pennsylvania program attended by George Washington as he met in Philadelphia to draft the US Constitution. Harriot’s performance likely inspired the gender-neutral language of the Constitution and her advocacy inspired countless young women to consider a college education and fight back against exclusions based on sex, gender, and race.

Policing The Womb: Invisible Women & the Criminalization of Motherhood  Professor Michelle Goodwin is credited with helping to establish and shape the health law field. She is an acclaimed bioethicist, constitutional law scholar, and prolific author.  Her scholarship appears in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Chicago Law Review, Cornell Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, New York Law Review, and Northwestern Law Review.

How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take It Back Madiba K. Dennie is an attorney, columnist, author, and professor whose work focuses on fostering an equitable multiracial democracy. Dennie is the Deputy Editor and Senior Contributor at the critical legal commentary outlet Balls and Strikes. In her previous role as a counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, she provided legal and policy analysis regarding a range of democracy issues including the census, the courts, and attempts to disempower communities of color. 

Untouchable: How Powerful People Get Away with It  

Justice Bent, Not Broken! Senior CNN Legal Analyst Elie Honig challenges whether the rule of law is under attack when powerful people square off against judges and juries. As author of Untouchable: How Powerful People Get Away with It and a former federal and state prosecutor, he served on air as a CNN Senior Legal Analyst throughout the first criminal trial and conviction of a former US President.

Constitutional Equal Rights - the Time is NOW!  Katherine Spillar is the Executive Director of Feminist Majority Foundation and Executive Editor of MS Magazine. Spillar has been a driving force in advocating for women’s rights both domestically and globally. An expert on anti-abortion terrorism, Spilllar has overseen the Feminists Majority's research and public education activities, law enforcement relations, litigation, as well as grassroots organizing to keep clinics open in the face of extremist violence.

DREAM.ORG is not just a dream - It is a movement!  Nisha Anand is a driving force behind a movement for change, blending her roles as an Indian-American activist, devoted mother, and advocate for racial justice. With a firm belief in the transformative power of common ground, Nisha brings people together to make the American dream a reality for everyone. Her compelling TED talk, "The Radical Act of Choosing Common Ground," resonated with millions, igniting crucial conversations amidst today's divisive climate.

 If You Think Democracy is Guaranteed, Think Again! David Pepper, the author of Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines and Saving Democracy: A User’s Manual for Every American joins SideBar as both its inaugural guest (12/22) and as the final guest for Season 1 (12/23). Although there were shocking attacks on democracy in 2023, David reminds us that there are also signs of hope . . . and that we all have a critical role to play in the battle for democracy.

 Is “vigilante federalism” the new weapon in battles over abortion, religion sexuality, gender, and race?  David Noll, co-author of Vigilante Federalism, lawyer, columnist, and Rutgers law professor joins SideBar co-hosts law school deans Jackie Gardina and Mitch Winick as they discuss whether the spread of private subordination laws thwart the democratic system, erase longstanding constitutional rights, and reflect an alarming move toward national vs. state regulatory power.

We are facing a crisis in the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.  Dahlia Lithwick is a regular contributor at MSNBC and senior editor at Slate. She has been writing the "Supreme Court Dispatches" and "Jurisprudence" columns since 1999.  Her most recent publication is Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America.  She is aalso the host of Amicus, Slate’s award-winning biweekly podcast about the law and the Supreme Court. 

Artificial Intelligence - Who do You Trust? Professor Orly Lobel is the Director of the Center for Employment and Labor Law, and founding member of the Center for Intellectual Property Law and Markets at the University of San Diego. Author of The Equality Machine: Harnessing Tomorrow’s Technologies for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future, Lobel argues that digital technology frequently has a comparative advantage over humans in detecting discrimination, correcting historical exclusions, subverting long-standing stereotypes, and addressing the world’s thorniest problems. 

Threats to free speech and expression are reaching into higher education, K-12 education, and even our public libraries. Suzanne Nossel currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of PEN America, the leading human rights and free expression organization. She is author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All.  She has served as the Chief Operating Officer of Human Rights Watch and as Exec. Director of Amnesty International USA. Nossel is a featured columnist and has published op-eds and scholarly articles on the topics of free speech and expression.

 Do states need to take steps to protect against the criminalization of women’s reproductive rights and access to healthcare? California Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks discusses California’s legislative response to the Supreme Court’s Dobb’s decision that overturned Roe v. Wade as well as the power of state legislatures to counter legislative overreach. Wicks has championed solutions to solve California's housing and homelessness crisis, expanding the state’s social safety net, championing the rights of women and working families, protecting consumers, and reducing gun violence in our communities. 

 Is the American judicial system losing the public’s respect and trust? Indiana University Law Professor Charles Geyh, author of Courting Peril: The Political Transformation of the American Judiciary and Who Is to Judge? The Perennial Debate Over Whether to Elect or Appoint America’s Judges joins SideBar co-hosts law school deans Jackie Gardina and Mitch Winick to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the American judicial system. Professor Geyh shares his expertise as a national and international expert in judicial ethics, selection, and impeachment.

Is Conservative Christian Discrimination Now a Protected Class? 

Law Professor Nomi Stolzenberg discusses the US Supreme Court’s consideration of Conservative Christian ideology as a new protected class under the First Amendment. Seven of the nine members of the Supreme Court are Catholic or raised Catholic.  How does this potentially affect the decisions being handed down by the Supreme Court? Stolzenberg is the author of "Righting the Relationship Between Race and Religion in Law" and other books and articles on religion and the law.

 Supreme Court Justices Behaving Badly - What Has History Taught Us? with Judge Margaret McKeown.  Federal Judge Margaret McKeown discusses her  book on U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, the longest-serving Supreme Court justice from 1939 to 1975. Justice Douglas is often remembered for his four wives, as a potential vice-presidential nominee, and as a target of impeachment proceedings for receiving private funds and alleged conflicts of interest. However, his most enduring legacy is perhaps his advocacy for the environment.

What is the High Road? Are we willing to pursue a more equitable, sustainable, and democratic society?  University of Wisconsin-Madison Law Professor Joel Rogers challenges government, community members, and businesses to work together on innovations that lift up workers, use natural resources and human capital more efficiently, and foster equity, justice, and democracy for all people. His books include The Hidden Election, On Democracy, Right Turn, Metro Futures, Associations and Democracy, Works Councils, Working Capital, What Workers Want, Cites at Work, and American Society: How It Really Works. 

Who is "Whispering" in the Supreme Court's Ears? Professors Morgan Hazelton and Rachael Hinkle have published a fascinating book on one of the mysteries behind Supreme Court decision-making. "Persuading the Supreme Court: The Significance of Briefs in Judicial Decision-Making" combines research of  25,000  briefs filed between 1984 and 2015 to shed light on one of the more mysterious and consequential features of Supreme Court cases. Both professors have J.D. and Ph.D. degrees and combine unique academic expertise in judicial politics, judicial process, and analytical methods. 

America's struggle for racial justice in the 21st Century. Peniel E. Joseph is a scholar, teacher, and public voice on issues related to race, citizenship, and democracy. He is the author of The Third Reconstruction - America's Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century. His university appointments at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas include Inaugural Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, and the Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values.