Film & the Law: Thurgood Marshall's Coming! & Impeach Justice Douglas!, September 15, 2022

CLE Credit hours:

     MO CLE 7.6 hours including 4.0 Elimination of Bias (AM) and 3.6 Ethics (PM)
     Kansas 7.5 hours including 3.5 Ethics and Professionalism (PM)
     Iowa 6.25 hours including 3.25 Diversity (AM) and 3 Ethics (PM)
     Nebraska 6.33 hours including Prof. Responsibility

AM – SESESSION:    JUSTICE THURGOOD MARSHALL IS COMING!

MARSHALL DESCRIPTION:       May 17, 2022 marked the 68th Anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which legally ended racial segregation in the schools of the United States.  The lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the cases that, together, are now known as “Brown,” was Thurgood Marshall, a passionate and embattled civil rights lawyer.

Thurgood Marshall is one of the giant figures in the history of American jurisprudence.  He was born into poverty and grew up in the Jim Crow racism of the early twentieth century.  He became the first African American Solicitor General of the United States and then the first African American to serve as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  Some called Marshall “Mr. Civil Rights,” but he never wanted to be known as a “civil rights lea            der.” He saw the law as the arena where minorities and oppressed citizens could find relief and he wanted to be known first, last and always as a lawyer.  In the end he was a powerful, resourceful and successful advocate for individual human and civil rights and serves as a model for tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds.

Thurgood Marshall's Coming!, featuring T. Mychael Rambo as Marshall, is a full length movie that portrays Marshall as an old man as he ruminates and relives past trials and victories.  Marshall was a master of language, storytelling and imitation and the play uses all of these to create a powerful solo presentation. His sense of humor and equanimity balance some of the bitterness he felt in his long journey and his legal arguments and rhetorical style are at once evocative and entertaining.  Using Marshall's own writings and reflections, the movie explores the discrimination he faced as he tried to enter law school, practice as a lawyer and defend the civil rights of others.  The movie shines a light on prejudice in the legal profession and the barriers to hiring that prevent full participation of lawyers of color, women and those with other nationalities of origin, religious and sexual preference – with the hope of eliminating these biases in the legal profession.  One of the best compliments received from one lawyer attending the program was, “The program made me feel what it was like to be Thurgood Marshall.”  We believe feeling what discrimination is like is a step to helping lawyers to overcome their prejudices.

The movie is followed by a filmed panel discussion and features a Moderated Online Chat Room in which attendees can participate in live discussion about discrimination and ethical concerns about bias in the legal profession.  Attendees are asked to focus on the issues demonstrated in the movie relating to the Preamble of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and bias issues as they relate to the rules in the legal profession.

PM SESSION:  IMPEACH JUSTICE DOUGLAS!

DESCRIPTION:   When Justice William O. Douglas retired from the United States Supreme Court in 1975, he had served for thirty-six years, longer than any other justice its history, and had helped to decide some of the most important cases in the nation's history. He was an inveterate traveler, prolific writer, and popular speaker, who used his position to espouse his ideas on environmentalism and the Bill of Rights. His public visibility and open criticism won him friends in some places and more than a few enemies in the Congress and the White House, some of whom actively, though unsuccessfully,  sought his impeachment.

Impeach Justice Douglas! explores some of the most explosive issues of William O. Douglas' long tenure  on the Supreme Court. He wrestles with balancing "wilderness mind" with the often-hostile adversarial conflicts created by his controversial opinions and his active public life. He addresses the issues about which he was most passionate . . . civil rights, freedom of speech, environmentalism, and the right of the individual to non-conformity and dissent . . . as he reflects on Brown v. The Board of Education, the "McCarthy Era," and the Vietnam War. Although Douglas' life spanned the early and middle part of the 20th century, the issues of his day remain major social and legal concerns of current times.

William O. Douglas left a legacy that calls for vigilance to protect human rights and action to protect the earth's environment. The movie explores that legacy, provokes thought about our responsibilities as citizens, not only of the United States, but of the global community.

The goal and purpose of the program is to use the cases and causes in which Justice William O. Douglas was involved as a basis for attorneys today to facilitate discussion and explore specific rules of professional conduct in contemporary legal and judicial practice.  The specific rules that might apply in these cases are listed below and attendees are asked to focus on the issues in the movie as they relate to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the ABA Code of Judicial Conduct, as well as the Rules in their own jurisdictions.