BY KAREN BOSSICK
Learn how the gender of a Supreme Court judge impacts the opinions rendered. And learn moving stories of immigrants this week at The Community Library.
Retried District Court Judge Mary Pat Gunderson will present her recently published research examining the real possibility of implicit gender bias in judicial opinion writing at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 14.
She will deconstruct recent Iowa Supreme Court ethics opinions written by an all-male court wherein the victims were female clients and/or an intimate partner of the male attorney/abuser. The language those results are wrapped in are revealing she says.
The subject matter will contain brief descriptions of physical and sexual abuse.
To see the presentation in person, go to https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/9109966. Or, watch via Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/700565310. The program will not be recorded for later viewing.
Mary Pat Gunderson was appointed to the bench as a District Court Judge in Polk County, Iowa, in 2011. She presided over both criminal and civil jury and non-jury trials and sentenced many criminal defendants. She retired in 2017.
Prior to her appointment to the District Court, she served as a Polk County magistrate and assistant Polk County attorney, prosecuting more than 25 felony jury trials, including kidnapping and first-degree murder.
- On Thursday, June 16, Ali Noorani will investigate the politics and policies of immigration.
The 6 p.m. presentation will also feature Bob Naerebout, former executive director of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, and Zeze Rwasama, director of the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Programs. Library Director Jenny Emery Davidson will moderate the discussion.
Noorami is the Hemingway Writer-in-Resident and author of “Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants.”
The book, based on interviews around the world, takes readers on a journey to Honduras, Cuidad Juarez in Mexico, Texas and even Twin Falls. It shares strategies designed to stem fear and hate as it shows how dairymen, mayors, school superintendents and police chiefs are partnering with business leaders and faith communities to retore the dignity of immigrants. It includes a chapter on Idaho’s Magic Valley.
To attend in person, go to https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/9077557. The program may be watched online at https://vimeo.com/711737941. It will be available for later viewing.