As some of you, but probably not most of you, know by now, Friday August 29, 2025 is my last working day at Legal Insurrection, the Equal Protection Project (EPP), or anywhere else for that matter, at least for now.
Yep, after landing at the U.S. Naval Academy on July 6, 1977 at age 17 and then pretty much working my butt off for 48 straight years, 31 years in the U.S. Navy and then in law from 2008 until today, I am retiring. By the way, the featured image from this post is my official Navy photo upon assuming command of USS Toledo (SSN-769), a fast attack sub, in 1998.
If you have any interest in how it all started, I invite you to watch my interview with Ron Coleman. I wish we had gotten into more of my work at Legal Insurrection or EPP during the show, but at least we got the basics of my background sorted out:
I am writing this last blog post to express my heartfelt thanks to Professor Bill Jacobson for hiring me in January 2023, and letting me post as often as I wanted about the absolutely atrocious things going on in the military during the Biden Administration, and for letting me draft a number of amicus curiae, or “friend-of-the-court,” briefs that EPP has filed in the United States Supreme Court or federal appellate courts around the country.
These briefs, and the other work I have done for EPP, are very important to me because I still can’t, and have never been able to, wrap my head around the idea that some people still think that racial discrimination is okay. I thought racial discrimination had been eradicated in the 1970s or so, only to find out when I got here to Legal Insurrection/EPP that it is still rampant, like everywhere. Scary. In fact, as keeper of the internal, top secret, EPP tracking spreadsheet, I learned this morning (when updating the spreadsheet for the final time) that EPP has managed to get over 100 discriminatory educational programs (scholarships, mostly) changed to remove the discriminatory requirements that various colleges had embedded in them. It is awesome to be part of a winning team like EPP, especially when the work is so important.
And, the “wins” in the amicus brief realm are equally important.
For example, the Fearless Fund case concerned a hedge fund that provided small business grants in the form of a contest, as long as you were a Black woman; others need not apply. The Plaintiffs in that case argued that a federal statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, which has prohibited racial discrimination in contracting since 1866, was violated by Defendants’ racially discriminatory grant contest. After the federal district, trial-level, court said that discrimination was okay because it was “protected speech” (what??), the 11th Circuit federal appellate court threw that ruling out (thank God) and held that the discriminatory contest was actually discriminatory and violated federal law.
Best of all, even though the court didn’t expressly cite our amicus brief, it was clear they read it because some of the language in the 11th Circuit’s opinion was just like what we submitted in our brief. From my post on the case:
Compare EPP’s Amicus Brief (“The district court’s decision would gut existing antidiscrimination civil rights laws”) with the 11th Circuit’s opinion (“First Amendment protections for a…categorial race-based exclusion— risks sowing the seeds of antidiscrimination law’s demise.”)
Pretty cool stuff, and this wasn’t the only time this happened.
Anyway, good luck to Professor Jacobson, Kemberlee Kaye, Mary Chastain, and the other happy warriors at Legal Insurrection/EPP. You are doing incredibly important work and I know that you will carry on in the best Legal Insurrection tradition. It has been an honor to work with you for these last two and a half years.
As to my motivation for retiring now, it has to do mainly with (1) some health challenges that I and some close family members have had and/or are going through that has made me think a lot about how short our time is on this planet, and (2) my feeling that after 31 years in the Navy, including front-line attack sub command and several other very important (and stressful) jobs, 17 years in law including working for three federal judges, a Manhattan law firm, Legal Insurrection, and some other good stuff, etc., etc., maybe I have done enough.
Lastly, I just want to emphasize how you can help with the work that goes on here at Legal Insurrection. I personally read Legal Insurrection every day for my news, not the mainstream media. I figure if it is on Legal Insurrection, then it’s something that deserves my attention, and if it isn’t on Legal Insurrection, then it’s not something I need to worry about.
As I transition back from Legal Insurrection employee to donor, I implore you to do what you can to keep the Legal Insurrection train rolling. There is still a ton of necessary work that needs to get done and the team here is doing it masterfully, and they deserve your attention and your support. Give what you can, please, here.
Thanks Bill!
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