The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope

  CONNECTING THE DOTS AND LINES OF INJUSTICE ©Wendell Griffen, 2020 September 24, 2020       Across the United States, people are debating how the legal system can justify allowing police officers to not be charged with killing Breonna Taylor who they shot to death in March 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky during a military-style invasion of the apartment she shared with her boyfriend.     Across the United States, people are debating whether it is fair for US Senators to hold a hearing before the November 3, 2020 presidential election to confirm whoever President Donald Trump nominates to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (who died on September 18).   Those Senators refused for months to conduct a confirmation process for Judge Merrick Garland when President Barack Obama nominated him to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia.   Across the United States, people are struggling to survive the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than...

REMEMBERING JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG ©Wendell Griffen, 2020 September 20, 2020   Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman confirmed to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), transitioned to life beyond us the evening of September 18.   Justice Ginsburg lived a long, remarkable life devoted to serving victims of discrimination and bigotry, based on sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation.   She was the first female editor of the Harvard Law Review, the first female tenured law professor at Columbia Law School and was one of the first lawyers who litigated sex discrimination cases before SCOTUS.   Justice Ginsburg served on the Supreme Court for 27 years, from August 10, 1993 until her death.     I first learned of Ginsburg in 1971 as a University of Arkansas political science major in a course titled “The Supreme Court and Civil Rights.”   Our class learned that an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyer ...