JCC Manhattan Announces ISSUES OF THE COURT Series to Explore Upcoming Supreme Court Decisions

Tali Farhadian Weinstein

The Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan (MMJCCM) announced today a new series, Issues of the Court: Asking Hard Questions + Seeking Common Ground, hosted by former federal and state prosecutor Tali Farhadian Weinstein. This two-part exploration of issues facing our country and society will welcome legal experts in conversation on two major Supreme Court decisions coming this spring. Issues of the Court will take place in person on April 20 and May 17 at the MMJCCM. Tickets are available at mmjccm.org/issues-court. 

Issues of the Court will offer constructive conversation and disagreement by giving voice to a range of perspectives on the issues awaiting spring Supreme Court decisions. On April 20, Eric Holder, former United States Attorney General, will discuss Moore v. Harper, and its impact on democracy, the courts, and how elections are run. On May 17, Jeannie Suk Gersen, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, will discuss Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and its impact on affirmative action in college admissions.

“I’m so looking forward to drawing on the Jewish and American legal traditions of constructive disagreement and inquiry in this series exploring major issues in the Supreme Court,” shares Tali Farhadian Weinstein. 

“I am thrilled for the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan to host this series, designed to surface the complexity of the issues currently before the Supreme Court,” says Rabbi Joanna Samuels, CEO MMJCCM. “We are honored that Tali Farhadian Weinstein, Eric Holder, and Jeannie Suk Gersen will guide us in how to understand these far-reaching legal matters, and affirm the JCC’s continuing role in engaging our community.”

In Moore v. Harper, the U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether the North Carolina Supreme Court has the power to strike down the legislature’s illegally gerrymandered congressional map for violating the North Carolina Constitution. The legislators have argued that a debunked interpretation of the Constitution — known as the “independent state legislature theory” — renders the state courts and state constitution powerless in matters relating to federal elections. Moore v. Harper was argued before the Supreme Court in December 2022, and the decision on this case will be issued in or before June 2023.

Petitioner Students for Fair Admissions sued Harvard College over its admissions process, alleging that the process violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against Asian American applicants in favor of white applicants. Harvard admits that it uses race as one of many factors in its admissions process but argues that its process adheres to the requirements for race-based admissions outlined in the Supreme Court’s decision in Grutter v. Bollinger. Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard was argued before the Supreme Court in October 2022, and the decision on this case will be issued in or before June 2023.

For more information about Issues of the Court events, visit mmjccm.org/issues-court.

Issues of the Court: Asking Hard Questions + Seeking Common Ground with Tali Farhadian Weinstein and Eric Holder
Thu, April 20, 7–9 pm
Eric Holder joins Tali to discuss Supreme Court case Moore v. Harper and its impact on democracy, the courts, and how elections run.

Issues of the Court: Asking Hard Questions + Seeking Common Ground with Tali Farhadian Weinstein and Jeannie Suk Gersen
Wed, May 17, 7–9 pm
Jeannie Suk Gersen joins Tali to discuss Supreme Court case Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and its impact on affirmative action in college admissions.

Tali Farhadian Weinstein, a former federal and state prosecutor, has spent nearly two decades working across a range of American legal institutions. Tali and her family came to America on Christmas Eve 1979 as refugees fleeing the violence and antisemitism of revolutionary Iran, and she in turn has dedicated her career to fighting for safety, fairness, and justice. After earning degrees from Yale College, Oxford University where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law School, Tali was a Law Clerk for Judge Merrick B. Garland at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Throughout Barack Obama’s presidency, Tali worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, first as Counsel to Attorney General Eric Holder, and then as a federal prosecutor. From 2018-2020, Tali served as the General Counsel of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, and she has taught criminal and immigration law and policy at NYU Law School and Columbia Law School. Tali is currently Of Counsel at Kaplan Hecker & Fink, where she litigates public interest cases, and a Legal Analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, and other publications. Tali lives in Manhattan with her husband and three daughters.

Eric Holder served as Attorney General from February 2009 to April 2015. As the third longest serving Attorney General in U.S. history and the first African American to hold that office, Mr. Holder is an internationally recognized leader across a broad range of regulatory enforcement, criminal justice, and national security issues. In 2014, TIME Magazine named Mr. Holder to its list of 100 Most Influential People, noting that he had “worked tirelessly to ensure equal justice.” Including his tenure as Attorney General, Mr. Holder has served in government for more than thirty years, having been appointed to various positions requiring U.S. Senate confirmation by Presidents Obama, Clinton, and Reagan.

Jeannie Suk Gersen is the John H. Watson, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She teaches and writes on a wide range of subjects including Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, Family Law, Sexual Assault and Harassment, and Title IX. Before joining the Harvard faculty, she served as a law clerk to Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court, and to Judge Harry Edwards on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She was educated at Yale (B.A. 1995), Oxford (D.Phil 1999), where she was a Marshall Scholar, and Harvard Law School (J.D. 2002), where she was a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. Her book, At Home in the Law: How the Domestic Violence Revolution is Transforming Privacy, was awarded the Law and Society Association’s Herbert Jacob Prize. She has been a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and of Harvard Law School’s Sacks-Freund Award for Teaching Excellence. She is a Contributing Writer to The New Yorker.

ABOUT THE MARLENE MEYERSON JCC MANHATTAN
Together with its community, the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan creates opportunities for people to connect, grow, and learn within an ever-changing Jewish landscape. Located on 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, the JCC is a vibrant non-profit community center on the Upper West Side. It also presents a robust slate of virtual programming, serving an even wider community. The JCC serves over 30,000 people annually through 1,200 programs each season that educate, inspire, and transform participants’ minds, bodies, and spirits. Since its inception, the JCC has been committed to serving the community by offering programs, classes, and events that reach beyond neighborhood boundaries, reaching people at all stages of their lives. Learn more at mmjccm.org.