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Event Description
This event is a part of the Goldman School's Interrogating Democracy series.
The 2021-2022 term of the U.S. Supreme Court is widely considered to be the most consequential in living memory. Bruen, West Virginia v. EPA, Dobbs—the Court’s rulings in these controversial cases weakened gun restrictions, hobbled the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to fight climate change, and overturned the constitutional protection for abortion rights nearly 50 years after Roe v. Wade. In The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America, Brennan Center for Justice president Michael Waldman examines the term’s major cases, the meaning of “originalism”—a new, extreme method of interpreting the Constitution—and offers proposals for reform.
Join Waldman and Maria Echaveste, President and CEO of the Opportunity Institute and former senior White House official, for an in-depth look at the tumultuous 2021-2022 term and a discussion of how these decisions will affect every American for generations to come.
Speakers
Michael Waldman is president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. A nonpartisan law and policy institute that focuses on improving systems of democracy and justice, the Brennan Center is a leading national voice on voting rights, money in politics, criminal justice reform, and constitutional law. Waldman, a constitutional lawyer and writer who is an expert on the presidency and American democracy, has led the Center since 2005. He was a member of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States in 2021.
Maria Echaveste is the President and CEO of the Opportunity Institute, a nonprofit organization that seeks to increase social and economic mobility and advance racial equity. Echaveste has been affiliated with UC Berkeley in various capacities since 2004 including: lecturing at the School of Law and in the undergraduate division on immigration and education; serving as program and policy director of the Law School’s Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy from 2008 -2012; as a Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Latin American Studies since 2008; and with the Berkeley Food Institute, focused on transforming our nation’s food system.
Prior to her time at UC Berkeley, Echaveste co-founded strategic and policy consulting group NVG, LLC, worked as a community leader and corporate attorney, and served as a senior White House and U.S. Department of Labor official. She is currently on the board of directors of UCSF-Benioff Oakland Children’s Hospital, Mi Familia Vota, and Level Playing Field Institute.