Come Hang Out This Weekend If You Are Reasonably Near Boston and Dislike Fascism
And especially if you appreciate rude polyresin depictions of John Roberts.
As I write this sentence on Wednesday, this week, the Trump administration launched several cruel and extremely unconstitutional attacks on trans people; illegally attempted to cut billions in federal funding for vital programs that millions of people depend on, and then attempted to rescind the attempted cuts, and then maybe attempted to rescind the attempted rescission of the attempted cuts; and, for good measure, blasted out a bumbling, brain-dead email trying to bully federal workers into quitting before some little Groyper freak takes over their agency and makes Elon Musk’s stewardship of Twitter look like a model of good corporate governance.
What I am saying here is that there is a lot going on right now, legally speaking, and given that the conservative legal movement has spent years stocking the federal bench with lawyers who are Republican operatives, anti-choice bloggers, or both, there is probably going to be a lot going on, legally speaking, for the foreseeable future, too. And although we will eventually blog all of it here at Balls & Strikes, I have modestly good news to share if you are within driving distance of a small school in Boston: This weekend, I and many other cool and smart friends of the site will be at Facing the Future: Organizing and Lawyering for Justice, a conference put on by the Systemic Justice Project at Harvard Law School. We’ll be talking about what lawyers and law students can do in an era of ascendant authoritarianism, from defending reproductive and transgender rights to stopping mass deportations to protecting labor unions to simply making the federal government work.
Former Congresswoman Cori Bush will be in conversation with Josie Duffy Rice on Friday, January 31, and B&S columnist Molly Coleman will discuss the hard work of building power from scratch. On Saturday, our buds from 5-4 will be recording a live podcast episode about the Court’s recent habit of embracing conservative propaganda in order to push its policy agenda. Cannot wait to find out whether they come down on the “pro” or “con” side!
You can register for free here through 5 ET on Thursday, January 30. Come say hello if you’re around, and free, and don’t much care for fascism. By itself, your attendance at a conference will not make the news better, but finding community with people who share your values—and learning about little things you can do in response—is empowering stuff, and always has a funny way of making things feel less hopeless.
Also, I will bring as many Umpire John Roberts bobbleheads to give away as I can manage to fit into my suitcase after I pack it this evening. This number is probably not greater than two, but still, all you have to do is ask.
As always, you can find everything we publish at ballsandstrikes.org, or follow us on Bluesky at @ballsandstrikes.org. You can get in touch by emailing us at contact@ballsandstrikes.org. Thanks for reading.
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