Wheatley Institute Fellow Judge Thomas B. Griffith has taken on a major role in the American Bar Association’s Task Force for American Democracy, a project created last year to strengthen the commitment of lawyers to the Constitution and the democratic republic it creates. Judge Griffith was appointed to the Task Force at its creation, and his emphasis since has been on the need for lawyers to protect and defend the Constitution by pushing back against the contempt that too often characterizes current American political disagreement. He is working with the deans of law schools to strengthen their commitment to teaching future lawyers that the most important way for them to carry out their primary duty to support and defend the Constitution is by modeling reasoned and respectful disagreement.
At a Democracy Summit that was the highlight of this year’s annual meeting of the American Bar Association, Judge Griffith moderated a discussion between two of the nation’s leading experts on the dangers of toxic polarization and how to overcome it: David Blankenhorn of Braver Angels, a grass roots organization dedicated to teaching the skills need to engage in civil and respectful disagreement; and Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, whose research into the causes of polarization offers keen insights into its cure.