In a recent conversation with my 6-year-old daughter, Samira, I mentioned that I’d had lunch with a judge — a female judge. Samira asked, “You mean the kind of judge that wears a black robe and says, ‘You’re guilty!’?”

“Yes,” I said. “Why do you ask?”

Samira told me, to my alarm, that she thought only boys could be judges. Why? “Because all the judges I’ve seen are boys, and they’re always so mean. Girls aren’t mean enough to be judges, are they?”... Read more

So, rather than worry about whether Judge Sotomayor will be a “reverse-racist” judge, conservatives should really worry that she’ll be a rock star — judicially speaking, of course.... Read more

Mildred and Richard Loving were childhood sweethearts. The couple — she was of African American and Native American descent, and he was a white man — married in the District of Columbia because interracial marriage was a crime in Virginia. Caught by police on a visit back to see family, the Lovings were convicted and banned from the state. They filed suit and, in a unanimous decision in 1967, Loving v.... Read more

This was Cheryl Hanna’s keynote address at the Second Annual Laura’s March, in remembrance of Laura Kate Winterbottom and a fundraiser for the Women’s Rape Crisis Center, on September 6 at Oakledge Park in Burlington. Seven Days is publishing her remarks to underscore the ongoing effort to eradicate violence toward women. Hanna is a professor at Vermont Law School and a constitutional scholar. Laura Winterbottom was raped and murdered in Burlington three years ago. For more info or to donate, contact Kristine Bickford at the WRCC at 864-0555 ext. 12.

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