NEW YORK >>Those actively engaged to opposing what some have characterized as the anti-civil liberty efforts of the Trump Administration maintain it will require a lot of stamina to fight but are persistent to make clear to friends and foes they are ready and not backing down.
Deborah N. Archer is associate dean for experiential education and clinical programs, professor of clinical law, and faculty director of the Community Equity Initiative at NYU School of Law She is also a former classmate of U.S. Senator Corey Booker (D-N.J.) and invited him to speak on a podcast to a nationwide audience on Thursday. Archer began by recalling protest is deep in the heart of the senior Senator from New Jersey.
Archer noted the podcast organizers of the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union were grateful for Booker taking time from a busy schedule to attend. “I want to start with protest,” said Archer. “I think every major leap of justice in the U.S. has been sparked or supported by protest. ” She went on that change is never achieved from silence. But protest is how the underserved shifted the terms of debate and challenged the status quo, and then prompted them to reckon with, a world they would rather ignore. Yet paired with legal and organizing strategy, opinions can change, behavior can change, and then the law can change.
“Right now, I see some skepticism about the role of protest in this movement,” Archer said. “I’m sure about the ACLU and others who take action with us feel deeply in their bones that were on the right side of history. The basic concept of freedom implied freedom of speech.”
Archer then wondered how was it that many justice advocates met at this moral moment in time? Booker then responded, for him, the activism of the ACLU is an example of what can happen when they are provided opportunity to share federal resources and are included into something far greater than themselves Booker confided that residents of New Jersey let him know they were not accepting the level of commitment he was putting forward. “They were saying, ‘You should do more.’ But I told them, we’re in the minority and I’m not sure what can we do?” Yet residents heard that as an excuse.
At one point, when Mayor Booker (Newark) lived in a mobile home in the projects, he wanted to bring to attention what was going on and soon learned that was the type of leader his constituents were looking for. He then got creative and used his moral imagination, what could he do to show the proper level of outrage? “We tried to be an ignition point for other people’s activism,” recalled. “So, that’s when we changed our tactics- to 24-hour protests, and even flying around the country and going to Republican districts, doing things different.”
Yet this year is one of those moments in the country when people realize so much is going on and going wrong, Booker noted. “It’s when the president is trampling on our fundamental rights and where there’s an assault on the Constitution.- and when you got to ask yourself not what others are doing, what he’s (Booker) doing, but what more could I be doing in this moral moment?” Archer then confided, what she loved about Booker was at his core, his message was everyone has the power. “But when they try to silence us, the most important thing we can do is raise our voices, full on every lever we got,” she said. “And we have more tools than we believe we do. Dissent is patriotic and is emblazoned on many ACLU mugs and T-shits.” And she disclosed her fondness for novelist James Baldwin, who was know for a signature quote, “I love America more than any other country in the world for exactly the reasons I reserve the right to criticize her perpetually.:”
Archer then delved into the historical freedom to criticize the U.S without fear of retribution and the right to speak truth to power. Yet she recalled, in her lifetime she could not remember a president with such hostile views toward the First Amendment. “This administration is clearly trying to shut down any power center, or it might try to hold in check, a university, the legal profession, especially to defend their first amendment rights.”
Booker interjected the point of this was to make American citizens afraid and overwhelmed. “Jefferson said, ‘When people are afraid of their government there is tyranny; when government is afraid of the people there is liberty.” and he pointed out that is why right now, people have to remind this government the power of the people is greater than the people in power. But he went on, only if we use our power and our power now is to protest. And what is more, Booker cautioned, the more the Trump Administration gets away with violating the law the more tempted they will be to perpetuate their disregard for, the law.
And Booker went on, the Trump Administration is contravening the rule of law, defying court orders and showing no respect for the rule of law. The first lawyers they went after, were inside the government, inside the civil rights division, and the civil rights division of the Department of Education. “Everybody inside the government who was focused on protecting fundamental rights was either fired or relocated to other positions, ” Booker said. “I had lawyers inside the justice department tell me, they were resigning because of what they were being told what to do; target trans children, defend Christianity, as opposed to Islan or Judaism. Then they put pressure on the judiciary, by defying court orders, and the U.S. began trolling judges, to the point where Chief Justice, (John) Roberts had to reprimand this president. Yet we know the threats to the lives of these judges has really shot up.”
