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Newsletter Editors:
Miguel Gavaldón
Keith Kamisugi
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 By Eva Paterson, President

Law in the Time of Cholera:
The Fire This Time

This has been a strange time for us here at EJS. Our work is going well but the world seems stranger than ever. Our own Senator Dianne Feinstein was the key vote that got Judge Leslie Southwick confirmed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, located in New Orleans.

EJS offices are located in Northern California so we watched with horror and sadness as the southern part of this great state burned. We were horrified when we learned that authorities mistreated Brown people and immigrants. We also were surprised to learn that the firestorm evacuees were seen as "civilized" as compared to evacuees in New Orleans. The insanity of the war on Iraq and on our civil liberties grinds on with no end in sight.

On the positive side, the progressive community continues to soldier on in spite of the wrongs that we see. EJS in its sixth year of existence is thriving. Many of the ideas that seemed so strange six years ago are now viewed as quite commonplace now. For example, activists and funders alike see the value in using art to advance a political agenda.

Towards that end, EJS sponsored a stirring performance of the Marcus Shelby Quintet featuring Faye Carol in Chicago. "Bound for Glory," the story of Harriet Tubman's struggles was well received by all in attendance. Marcus and his jazz orchestra will be honored at our December 14th gala for the ground breaking work they have done combining politics and art.

ODC will be performing an original dance, "Unintended Consequences," honoring immigrants. The recent spate of immigrant bashing that has arisen in the Southern California firestorms makes this collaboration between dancers and activists even more timely and appropriate.

While in Chicago, the staff of EJS met with plaintiffs' attorneys in employment discrimination cases to talk about the part unconscious bias plays in workplace decisions. We used the EJS model of pairing litigators with social scientists to good end.

Just last week, EJS traveled to UCLA to participate in a symposium on the adverse impact of Proposition 209, the initiative that effectively limited the ability of public entities to employ race and gender conscious remedies for exclusion of under-representation of women and people of color from jobs, slots in educational institutions, and public contracting.

From November 1-2, some of us were at Boalt Hall co-sponsoring a conference on discrimination. That same week, others of us participated in a conference at the University of Connecticut celebrating the 20th anniversary of Professor Charles Lawrence's seminal work, "The Id, The Ego, and Equal Protection: Reckoning with Unconscious Racism."

As you read this, we are in Durham, North Carolina, to participate in a gathering of attorneys discussing how to litigate in the Roberts-Alito Court. Erwin Chemerinsky, newly appointed Dean of the new law school at UC-Irvine will be hosting this exciting event. In this newsletter, Erwin shares with us his thoughts on the Supreme Court decision on the Seattle and Louisville school desegregation cases, cautioning that while the decision was a tremendous setback for equal opportunity in education, the fight is not yet over.

It is so fulfilling to see the realization of the vision that a small group of us held of a legal organization that could deal strategically with advancing a progressive agenda that would result in a better world. Thanks for all that you do to help us.

Also in this newsletter, Lee Cokorinos reveals the racism and hypocrisy of anti-immigration movement leaders by citing example after example of their divisive attitudes, including their penchant for wedge politics designed to pit the Black and Latino communities against each other.

Marianne Lado's article critiques Roger Clegg's presentation on a panel at the annual conference of the American Constitution Society this summer. I moderated the panel, which focused on the role of the law in countering racism in our society. Like Marianne, I was astounded by Mr. Clegg's ungrounded view that social pathologies were the main cause of racism to the exclusion of other factors.

Our previous Judge Motley Civil Rights fellow Nicholas Espíritu recaps our "Immigration and the Black Community" forum, where we took an important first step to bridge issues related to the immigrant rights battle and the continuing struggle for justice for the Black community.

We also have articles on Shakti Butler's fantastic unconscious bias workshop at our Motley Fellow luncheon, an update on the Port Chicago Memorial effort and photos from our reception for judges and friends attending the American Bar Assocation national conference. Appeals Court Judge Theodore A. McKee was our honored guest and speaker.

That's it for now. Thanks to all of you who have not given up on your efforts to transform our world into a better one.