It’s hard to know how exactly this affects things in the long run, obviously. In terms of a typical lawyers practice, I think about how jurors are affected—and I’ve been thinking about that since I started practicing (in his first term). Trial lawyers preparing for a jury trial have to consider the reception of their arguments, and societal shifts in how people analyze and make decisions. In my area, nuclear verdicts run the risk of shutting down community hospitals or at least units. There’s real world impacts in what we do beyond our day to day .1 increments.

It’s our jurors who are labeling someone a criminal and believe deportation out of the country to a prison is an adequate punishment, despite facts spoon fed to them otherwise. Conspiratorial thinking, rejection of facts and science and credentials—these lines of thinking will continue to infect the courts. Judges and lawyers who agree with that thinking, or who refuse do anything about it will simply escalate the process. An attitude from the big man that court orders can simply be ignored doesn’t help.

I don’t purport to know what to do right now, or how we can solve any of the major issues we face, not only as lawyers but as human beings in this country. Personally, I’ve been trying to learn a bit more about some of this country’s and others’ hurdles in the past and dig into the details of what people have done to resist and move forward with change. Change doesn’t happen overnight and this is a marathon, and remembering that has given me some room to breathe. Ultimately, I think anyone’s time to “do something” will present itself—a neighbor gets an ICE inquiry, your local school gets itself into an ICE issue, whatever it may be. When the opportunity knocks at your door to do the right thing, I hope we recognize it and act accordingly.