'The People's Lawyers': Attorneys General Letitia James and Dana Nessel on Reclaiming and Rebuildin
(you can access the entire conversation through the link below)
‘The People’s Lawyers’: Attorneys General Letitia James and Dana Nessel on Reclaiming and Rebuilding U.S. Democracy
9/20/2022 by Ms. Editors
On Sept. 7, Ms. recorded a “fireside chat”-style discussion with Attorneys General Letitia James (N.Y.) and Dana Nessel (Mich.)—two true trailblazers in the fight for justice and democracy—moderated by election administration expert and governor of the United States Postal Service, Amber McReynolds. The full recording is available here; read on for our favorite highlights of that conversation.
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New York Attorney General Leticia James: I’m a former public defender and when I decided to run for office, there were not a lot of women who looked like me. I wanted to make sure that women who historically have been left out of the table of democracy their voices were heard. One day at my coffee shop, a young woman whose husband was about to be deported asked me for legal advice. We sat down. She cried. We cried together. I provided her with assistance and we saved her husband from deportation. It was at that point in time a light bulb went off: It was the law that I needed to pursue. It was justice that I needed to pursue. I needed to continue on that path—and here I am now representing the great state of New York, continuing to stand up for vulnerable and marginalized populations using the local law as a sword and as a shield.
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel: In the early part of 2017, I attended more marches and rallies within a span of a handful of months than I have probably in my entire life put together. Finally, I turned to my wife and I said, “I have to do something else besides protest.” Attorneys general across the nation were bringing cases against the Trump administration—and they were winning. I saw that really as the best way to fight back against constitutional trespasses against the people of my state. So, the first time ever I ran for office was in 2018, which probably was ill-advised [for AG] to be your very first office. I was sworn into office on Jan. 1, 2019, and I’ve had the opportunity to serve side by side with AG James and a number of our colleagues that came in that year as well. It’s been a privilege and an honor of a lifetime for me.
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lAttorney General Letitia James makes an announcement about New York’s Reproductive Freedom and Equity Program, a new initiative to provide financial resources to abortion providers on May 9, 2022, in New York City. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson at the 2022 Michigan Democratic Party Nominating Convention Aug. 21. (Twitter)
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Protesters march through downtown Detroit on May 7, 2022—five days after the Dobbs leaked opinion—in support of Roe v. Wade. (Matthew Hatcher / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images)
AG Nessel: In my state, there was a 1930 law that I knew would spring immediately back into effect prohibiting all abortions—no exceptions for rape, not for incest, not to preserve the health of the mother. I’m representing the governor in an effort to have that law declared unconstitutional and a violation of due process rights, equal protection rights, bodily integrity. (Editor’s note: On Sept. 7, Michigan Court of Claims Judge Elizabeth Gleicher ruled that the state’s 1931 abortion ban violates the Michigan Constitution because it “would deprive pregnant women of their right to bodily integrity and autonomy, and the equal protection of the law.” Gleicher issued a permanent injunction blocking Michigan’s anti-abortion prosecutors from enforcing the law.) We had multiple doctors testify that they didn’t know what the hell that meant to save the life of the woman: Does that mean a 60 percent chance she’s going to die, 70 percent chance? Do you have to wait when somebody comes in with an ectopic pregnancy, and that pregnancy is never going to be viable, but technically they’re not dead yet? These doctors emphasized just how many women they estimated either would have profound health complications as a result of the law or just outright die.
You know, the fundamental equal protection violation is that we never regulate men’s bodies this way. The government doesn’t have a say. If you have testicular cancer, if you have prostate cancer, you just want to get a vasectomy, the government doesn’t get involved at all. Not true with women’s bodies. The government feels just fine regulating women’s bodies in a way that men’s bodies are never subject to being politicized or regulated. The fact that so many seem totally fine with that is, honestly, it’s a source of sadness to me that I can’t even fully express—that there are people who just don’t see women as full humans and feel free to regulate our bodies.
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https://msmagazine.com/2022/09/20/attorney-general-letitia-james-dana-nessel/
= new reply since forum marked as read
