Events

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Is ICE Above the Law?” An examination of the federal officer accountability crisis and of unconstitutional and unchecked assertions of power, with Scott Michelman, legal director of ACLU-D.C. and lecturer on law and Shikes Fellow in Civil Liberties and Civil Rights at Harvard Law School. The Trump administration has encouraged Immigration and Customs Enforcement members and other federal agents to commit horrifying abuses based on claims that they have “absolute immunity.” The results have been devastating. Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Ruben Ray Martinez, and Keith Porter Jr. are all dead at the hands of federal agents, and countless more have been subjected to needless violence and trauma. A recent ACLU and YouGov poll showed that 93 percent of voters—including 89 percent of Trump voters—believe that federal agents should not be above the law. What many Americans don’t know is just how difficult it can be to hold federal officers accountable when they violate constitutional rights. Join Scott Michelman, legal scholar and ACLU-D.C. legal director, for a deep dive into why it’s so difficult for most ordinary people to seek justice from federal agents and what can be done about it. He’ll discuss legal precedents that limit the ability of ordinary people to seek justice. Although the Supreme Court had held for most of the past half-century that federal officers should be suable just like their state counterparts, it reversed course in a series of cases over the last 10 years, declaring in 2017 that permitting suits against federal officers was a “disfavored judicial activity” that courts should almost never allow because Congress has not specifically provided for such suits. You’ll learn about the ramifications of an alarming accountability gap between federal and state officers. For example, after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in 2020, Mr. Floyd’s family sued the City of Minneapolis and police officers for violating his constitutional rights and secured a $27 million settlement. Federal law, however, does not allow the families of Alex Pretti and Renee Good to file that type of lawsuit against the federal agents who shot and killed them just miles from where Mr. Floyd was murdered. You’ll learn how federal and local lawmakers can fix this problem. Potential federal remedies include reform bills pending in Congress right now, such as the Constitutional Accountability Act. At the local level, the District of Columbia could pass a law authorizing federal officer suits for constitutional violations. Finally, we'll talk about what people in D.C. and across the country can do to push for meaningful reform. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Don’t miss the final screening in our Blacklisted summer film series, featuring Three Brave Men. This 1956 film is based on true local events, telling the story of Greenbelt, MD native Abraham Chasanow, a government employee accused of communist ties. The screening will be followed by a talkback with CJM's Director of Curatorial Affairs, Sarah Leavitt and the ACLU of District of Columbia's Legal Director, Scott Michelman. Presented in partnership with the ACLU of District of Columbia. Popcorn for sale. 1h 28m. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Dr. Sarah Leavitt is the Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Capital Jewish Museum. She holds an MA in Museum Studies and a PhD in American Studies from Brown University and has worked in museums for over 30 years. Since moving to the DC area in 2000, she has worked at the museum of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and for 13 years at the National Building Museum in DC. Her previous exhibitions have covered a range of subjects: from women’s sports, to the history of the parking garage, to the border wall between the US and Mexico. Sarah’s publications include several books and articles; some of her favorites cover the history of the pregnancy test, America’s first successful water-powered cotton spinning mill, St. Elizabeths mental health hospital, and the history of domestic advice manuals. Sarah is a member of Temple Shalom, and lives in Silver Spring, MD. Scott Michelman is Legal Director for the ACLU of the District of Columbia. Scott has litigated a broad range of civil rights and civil liberties issues, including access to the courts, disablity rights, discrimination and selective enforcement, freedom of speech and press, habeas corpus, immigrants’ rights, judicial secrecy, LGBTQ+ rights, police misconduct, political protest, post-September 11 abuse of executive power, prisoners' rights, privacy rights, religious freedom, reproductive freedom, the rights of medical marijuana patients, sentencing law, and unreasonable search and seizure. He has additionally litigated cases about class action law, consumers’ rights, and workers’ rights. Scott is also Shikes Fellow on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, where he teaches Civil Rights Litigation. He has previously taught as clinical or adjunct faculty at American University Washington College of Law, Santa Clara Law School, Seton Hall Law School, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. He is the author of the law school textbook Civil Rights Enforcement (2d ed. 2023, Aspen).