Law

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Death of Lawyer and Civil Rights Advocate Carol Lani Guinier

January 7, 2022

Carol Lani Guinier was an American professor, litigator, and civil rights advocate. She was the first woman of color to become a tenured professor at Harvard Law School, and her scholarship concerns itself primarily with the role of race and gender in legislation and the political process.

Abortion rights demonstrators hold signs outside US Supreme Court after leaked SCOTUS opinion.

We Must Take a Page from Jewish Reproductive Justice Activists and Continue the Fight

Betsy More

There are as many different ways of working for reproductive justice as there are people.

Carly Manes and the cover of her book What's An Abortion, Anyway?

Interview with Carly Manes, author of "What’s An Abortion, Anyway?"

Chanel Dubofsky

We spoke with Carly Manes about Jewish faith and abortion, the obstacles in getting the book into the world, and how Jewish communities can support the fight for reproductive justice.

Collage with Image of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Pen

Abolish the Death Penalty in Honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ellie Friedman

This month especially, while remembering everything RBG accomplished, we should take the time to look into the lesser known parts of Justice Ginsburg’s long career.

Lorna Lippmann

Lorna Lippmann (1921-2004) was an Australian researcher and educator who devoted much of her life to the promotion of Aboriginal rights. She was an activist, academic researcher, author, government advisor, and community relations practitioner.  Aboriginal leaders praised her pioneering contributions.

Abortion rights activists protest outside Supreme Court

The Supreme Court and the Future of Abortion

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

Now more than ever, Jews who are concerned about threats to reproductive justice must stand firm in their support for abortion rights.

Image of Large White Columns

Injustice in the Justice System: An Inside Look at the US District Court House

Ma'ayan Stutman-Shaw

As an intern at the US District Court House, I recognized a pattern, both in the cases that were brought forth and in the defendants’ backgrounds.

Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan, the second Jewish woman to serve as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was appointed by President Barack Obama after a distinguished government and academic career. While she has maintained a low profile on the Court, she has chosen to speak through her incisive opinions and her pointed questioning during oral argument.

Hélène Cazes Benatar

Hélène Cazes Benatar was a Moroccan-born human rights lawyer who rescued thousands of refugees in North Africa during World War II. She was a life-long advocate for individual rights and political equality, especially for disenfranchised Maghrebi Jews. During World War II, she fought to protect victims of pro-Fascist Vichy rule; post-war, she promoted the migration of Moroccan Jews to Palestine and elsewhere.

Pearl Hart

Pearl M. Hart was a pioneering attorney, activist, and educator. She devoted her life to defending the legal rights of the vulnerable and oppressed, especially women, children, immigrants, and gay men and lesbians. Her work in Chicago was instrumental in the development of the LGBTQ community there in the middle of the twentieth century.

Bernice Sandler

Bernice (Bunny) Sandler was an activist and education expert who theorized Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, the federal law that mandates sexual equality in educational institutions that receive federal funding. As such, Sandler was an architect of the 1970s feminist “women’s liberation” movement. She continued to fight sex discrimination in education in the following decades, especially on issues of racial inequity and sexual assault.

Joan Mavis Rosanove

Australian lawyer Joan Rosanove was the first woman in Victoria to work specifically as a courtroom lawyer. Flamboyant and feisty, she was an outspoken champion of women’s rights and battled, with grace and characteristic good humor, the sexist attitudes that inevitably laid obstacles across her path.

Edie Windsor

Before Edie Windsor became an LGBT activist, she was a computer programmer at IBM in the 1960s and a mentor to women in the field. When her joyous 44-year relationship with Thea Spyer ended with Thea’s death, Edie sued the federal government to recognize their marriage. She took her case all the way to the Supreme Court, winning recognition for the marriages of all same-sex couples in the U.S.

Bessie Margolin

Bessie Margolin was raised in New Orleans’s Jewish orphanage, where she learned powerful lessons in social justice that propelled her trailblazing legal career through the New Deal and Nazi War Crimes Trials to the United State Supreme Court, where she championed the rights of millions of American workers. A reluctant feminist who became the nation’s top fighter for equal pay for women and a co-founder of NOW, Margolin used intellect and charm to open courtroom doors for countless women who have followed.

Donald Trump walks with Amy Coney Barrett

I'm an Assault Survivor, and Amy Coney Barrett Scares Me

Rosie Bader

What does Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation mean for assault survivors?

Topics: Law
Vigil for Ruth Bader Ginsburg outside the Supreme Court, September 2020 CROP

How Do You Mourn an Icon like RBG?

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

The timing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death has meant, from a pacing standpoint, that we haven’t had much time for thoughtful, nuanced reflection.

Topics: Law

Episode 47: RBG in Her Own Words (Transcript)

Episode 47: RBG in Her Own Words (Transcript)

Episode 47: RBG in Her Own Words

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman to sit on the nation’s highest court, died on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. Justice Ginsburg was an American and feminist icon and a Jewish hero. Her experiences as a Jew and as a woman helped her identify with outsiders and see the gap between American ideals and the realities that so many people live every day. Justice Ginsburg was a role model... and she had her own role models too. In this episode, we dig into JWA's archive and share some of the Justice's own words about a Jewish woman who inspired her.

Shirley Siegel, 2015

Shirley Adelson Siegel Is My Intersectional Feminist Role Model

Madelyn Gelb

Shirley Adelson Siegel is proof that Judaism isn’t something that has to hold me back from being a good feminist or activist. On the contrary, Judaism can be the force that propels me forward and pushes me to be a better person. Judaism has taught me to love my neighbor as I love myself, to not speak ill of others, and to take care of people who need help, all of which are things that make me a better person and a better feminist.

Stock Photo of "I Voted" Stickers

Voting: Still a Right, Right?

Emma Nathanson

Typically, walking through the doors of my high school gym brings on a feeling of dread, accompanied by the smell of body odor and wet paint. When I walked into the gym this past November, however, the only thing I felt was excitement. On the day of the 2018 Midterm Elections, I had decided to spend my Tuesday afternoon and evening as an election official, helping voters register, cast ballots, and, most importantly, go home with an “I Voted!” sticker proudly affixed to their shirts.

Judge Judy

Judge Judy: Poetry Muse

Jen Karetnick

Exclusively for JWA, Jen Karetnick shares two of her poems about everyone’s favorite Judge: Judy.

Topics: Television, Law, Poetry
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford

She Said "Hello"

Rabbi Leah Berkowitz

Rabbi Leah Berkowitz reflects on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and explores the pressure placed on women to be "nice," even at the expense of their own wellbeing and safety.

Cropped Image of RBG portrait

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Michigan, and Me

Bella Book

When I think of William W. Cook’s virulent desire to refuse admission to all Jews at the University of Michigan ... I am comforted and emboldened by the thought of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. William W. Cook would not have liked the notorious RBG.

Rita Schwerner

When her husband was murdered during Freedom Summer in 1964 in Mississippi, Rita Levant Schwerner Bender used the ensuing media attention to focus the public’s awareness on the importance of civil rights.
Trans Soldier Erez Shachar (media object)

Trans Bodies are Human Bodies

Emily Cataneo

Trump et al seem to believe that there exists a template for a default American. A normal American, if you will. Surprise, surprise: that American is a white, able cis man.

Topics: Law, Military

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