Lessons from Poland for Defending the Rule of Law
5:30pm - 7:00pm EDT
11:30pm - 1:00am CEST
12:30am - 2:00am EEST
About this event
The repression and harassment facing US judges and lawyers – including the summary firing of dozens of immigration judges without cause – are unprecedented in modern American history. But these actions echo autocratic attacks on Polish judges and rule of law from 2015 to 2023. The German Marshall Fund and The Proteus Fund will host Polish Judge Monika Frackowiak and civil rights lawyer and rule of law expert Maciej Nowicki in conversation with several immigration judges who were summarily fired without cause: Shira Levine, Kyra Lilien, Ila Deiss, and Elisa Brasil, joined by retired immigration judge and community leader Dana Leigh Marks. Recently, more than 125 of a total of 700 immigration judges were summarily fired without cause. The group will discuss how Polish judges and lawyers stood up to eight years of attacks by the former Polish government, how the firing of immigration judges impacts our communities, and how we might – like the Polish visitors – mobilize Americans in support of equal treatment, due process, and free courts.
To attend, kindly RSVP to [email protected].
Download the invitation here.
Event Speakers
Melissa Hooper
Senior Fellow, Strategic Democracy InitiativesMelissa Hooper is a senior fellow with GMF's Strategic Democracy Initiatives. She leads the team’s Rule of Law Action Network, which works to devise policy responses and solutions to issues affecting justice-sector institutions...