120 Years Later: Asian and Pacific Islander Alumni Perspectives, Part 3: Justice For All

Episode Topic: Justice For All

How can we create a more inclusive world where every individual feels seen, heard, and at home? See how Justice Mary Yu '93 J.D. champions equality as the first Asian, Latina, and LGBTQ+ jurist on the Washington State Supreme Court, offering a roadmap to vanquish doubt through the power of authenticity and her call to always "stay visible."

Featured Speakers:

• Justice Mary I. Yu '93 J.D., Washington State Supreme Court

Read this episode's recap over on the University of Notre Dame's open online learning community platform, ThinkND: https://go.nd.edu/9ed289.

This podcast is a part of the ThinkND Series titled 120 Years Later: Asian and Pacific Islander Alumni Perspectives. 

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Transcript

Welcome and Introductions

1 0:08

Hi everyone, my name is Jeremy Dela Cruz and welcome to today's event. So I serve as the chair of the Asian Pacific alumni of Notre Dame and on behalf of the a PA and Arc nd we're so glad you're joining us for today's event, I'd like to extend a special thank you and warm welcome to Justice Mary you JD, class of 1993 for being our featured guest speaker today. Additionally to our co-moderator Rona Ika from the class of 2001 and Edward Augustine from the class of 1987. In addition to a PA board members, ARC board members and members of the Alumni Association Board of Directors in attendance for today. Before we begin today's conversation, I'd like to highlight some of the event organizers. So Jen from Arc and D is here as well as Chair of Arc, and we'd love to feature our respective boards as the co-presenters of today's program, starting off with the Asian Pacific alumni of Notre Dame. So. If you're new to the a PA, we are an official alumni group of the Notre Dame Alumni Association dedicated to celebrating Asian Pacific, uh, heritage within the Notre Dame family. So all of the wonderful alumni, parents, students, and friends with roots across Asia and the Pacific Islands. So we accomplish this through student engagement, alumni programming, and meaningful lifelong connections. And so. We invite you to contact us, reach out to us whenever you have a question or ideas for collaboration. please feel free to email us@apa.org alumni nd edu for opportunities. And of course, in the month of May, we celebrate Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. And so. you know, as an a PA community, we wanted to share with the wider Notre Dame family two upcoming milestones that are very meaningful for our, for our community. So later this year in October, 2025, the a PA will celebrate its 30th anniversary of being an official alumni group. And so we're so excited to celebrate the big three oh, um, milestone with a, uh, incredible lineup of various anniversary celebratory, events and activities. Additionally, next year we're even more excited to celebrate the 120th anniversary of Notre Dame's first Asian graduate. And that will be, um, around the June, 2026 timeline, where coincidentally we'll also have the a PA and joint Native American alumni, reunion as well for that, for that year. Additionally this month in May, we're also happy to present a special, um, series of daily gospel reflections written by a PA community members from across the US on Faith nd. So, if you're not aware of Faith nd Faith ND is, uh, the Alumni Association Spiritual Outreach Program. And so that's available on Faith nd edu. If you'd like to learn more about each writer on our Instagram, uh, follow us at APA of nd and we have, um, a, uh, daily, feature on each of those writers of those daily gospel reflections. So I'll now hand it over to Jen to feature the ARC ND community.

Speaker 2 3:39

Thank you so much, Jeremy. Uh, I'm Jen Oberhausen, the chair of Arc nd, which stands for the Alumni Rainbow Community of Notre Dame. We were launched officially in 2022, um, as the first alumni group, recognizing the L-G-B-T-Q members of the Notre Dame family, as well as allies. So our, our main purpose is to celebrate our presence and enrich the experience of our alumni community, creating an opportunity for our alumni to connect with each other and with the university. so we're thrilled that we're here and part of the conversation and, also wanna thank the a PA for partnering with us on this event, especially with our many intersectional members, uh, on the group here. So we have a few events on the horizon coming up. This, uh, later this month is the first ARC reunion, and we're doing that in conjunction with the Notre Dame reunion, which, the general reunion is for class years, ending in five and zero. We're inviting all members of the art community back to campus, um, and have had really a great turnout so far. We're expecting at least 75, uh, alumni to join us. Um, and we have a, a full weekend of events, including an awards luncheon. we have, uh, an event near the grotto, a prayer service. And, and many other events there. Um, so really looking forward to seeing everyone. We're also doing a joint, happy hour with the Hispanic alumni of Notre Dame as they're also celebrating their reunion. so thank you for Christina, who I see on the call, and we're excited to partner with them on that. I also wanted to flag that we have Pride Month coming up in June, and ARC has put together a toolkit for the clubs and other members of the alumni community to use. In planning events and posting on social media. so to make that as easy as possible, but you're also welcome to reach out to any of us on the board, um, if you have any questions or ideas, on anything related to these things. or if you are. Interested in getting more involved in arc? You can obviously sign up through, uh, my and d the link is right there. And then we also, uh, continue to look for volunteers within the local clubs to be the ARC coordinator, to help bring our ARC programming, uh, into the clubs across the country and across the world. Thank you and welcome everyone.

1 6:03

Thanks Jen. And so just a few event reminders for today's program. So as we gather in this virtual space, just a reminder to, you know, let's work together to create a very respectful and uplifting environment for one another and in particular. We encourage you to introduce yourselves in the chat. We have more than 80 RSVPs for today's event, so we'd love to get to know each and every one of you, especially through our time honored tradition of the Notre Dame introduction. Your name, graduation, years, dorm and majors. Additionally, if you do have a question for justice, you and the moderators, please feel free to throw those in the chat. And you know, time permitting, we may discuss that in today's program. And so last but not least, we encourage everyone to stay connected with the Asian Pacific alumni of Notre Dame. We have accounts on a variety of different social media. in particular we have a very active Instagram account, so follow us at APA of ND and also remember to tag us in any photos if you host any Lunar New Year events or other Asian Pacific Islander events. Additionally, we recently launched a new LinkedIn, organization page for the A PA of nd so follow that as well for the latest updates. And again, if you have any questions about the a PA community or have ideas. Especially at the local Notre Dame Club level of any events or opportunities for collaboration. Feel free to email us at that email address on the screen in addition to, visiting our website, APA group.org. Additionally, I also invite you to stay connected with ARC nd. and follow their pages on Facebook Arc Notre Dame, in addition to Instagram at ARC nd and email that is there as well for, for the ARC team and on their website as well on my Notre Dame. So once again, you know, wanted to thank you all, for, you know, thank you to all those in, in the audience today and all those who will be watching this recording. We very much appreciate your support of the a PA and our communities Now. Today's program, justice for All, is a chance for us to reflect not only on the extraordinary journey of justice Mary you, but also on the deeper calling that unites us in the Notre Dame family. And that calling is, you know, the call to be a powerful force for good to lead with courage and to expand this circle of who feels seen, heard, and at home in the Notre Dame family. Justice U embodies that spirit of service and we're so grateful to learn from her today. Now you're probably wondering why I have Pope Leo the 14th, justice U and Jimmy Kimmel on this slide, and I promise there's a very good reason. So it's my honor to introduce Justice Mary u. A proud graduate of Notre Dame Law School class of 1993. In 2014, justice U was appointed to the Washington State Supreme Court. Before that, she served for over 14 years as a respected trial court judge in King County presiding over a wide range of civil, criminal, and family cases, including hundreds of adoptions. Justice U is the first Asian, the first Latina, and the first member of the L-G-B-T-Q community to serve on the Washington State Supreme Court. Additionally, she shares something in common with Pope Leo the 14th. They both proudly hail from Chicago South side, where she was raised in Bridgeport by immigrant parents from Mexico and China. Justice U is the first in her family to graduate college and holds degrees from Dominican University, Loyola University, Chicago, and Notre Dame. Now, I first learned about Justice U back in 2021. It was the tail end of the Global Pandemic, and I was watching an episode of Jimmy Kimmel's late Night Talk show. Jimmy Kimmel was doing a segment on perfectly named people whose names match their profession. And Justice Yu was featured since she was a frequent wedding officiant, and her name is Mary Yu. Now during her legal career, justice U has officiated more than 650 weddings and holds the distinction of officiating the first same sex marriage in the state of Washington at midnight on December 9th, 2012 as an Asian American and a member of the LGBTQ plus community who will be celebrating three years of marriage with my husband next eczema. He's also on the call today. I resonated with Justice Yu's story and her meaningful example of advancing justice for all. And so with that, I'll hand it off to our moderators, Rona and Edward, to kick off the conversation with our featured guest speaker, justice Mary Yu.

Early Life and Path to Law

Speaker 3 11:12

Thank you Jeremy. hello Justice Yu. So we've got a lot to cover. I'm just gonna jump right into the questions. Um, I'm gonna start off with my favorite part of the discussion, which I find oftentimes tends to be the most compelling part of the discussion. tell us about your journey, right? We wanna hear your story. What was, just as you as a young child, I know you, you were born in Chicago, but you, you live in Washington now, but you, you went to school to school in different places. Did you always wanna be a judge? What was your experience like at Notre Dame? We wanna hear everything

Speaker 4 11:53

Rona, first of all, lemme thank you for the privilege and the honor of being with you. Um, I'm very, very proud to be an alum of Notre Dame and there isn't a morning. That I don't start off my day saying, right. A Notre Dame lawyer is a different kind of lawyer, and then challenging myself to really rise to that challenge. So I'm very sincere and wanna thank each one of you, for being here today. Well, you know, it, it really is unlikely that I would've been a Supreme Court justice because I was not a child who dreamt about being a lawyer or a judge or a Supreme Court justice. Part of it was just the limitations of my life experience as a child. I grew up in Bridgeport, as was already mentioned, uh, in a lower working class family. So we really didn't have contact or know anyone other than the good sisters at our school, um, who had gone to college. I just didn't know any professionals. I never dreamt of it. And the dream that I had that my mother encouraged me was. To make sure that I graduated from high school and that I could type, and the reason why is she just said it would be really, really wonderful if you could get a job as a secretary in an office where your hands could be clean. Unlike my dad and and mom, I mean, they really said, we don't want your hands to be like ours, right? Our hands have been calloused and dirty from working so hard, and we want you to be in an office. I have to say that I never even thought about going to college until a teacher in high school came up to me and just said, Mary, did you ever think about going to college? And and my response was, no. Kids like me don't go to college. We just didn't have the resources and I didn't know how it was possible to go from A to B. Well, this good teacher named Joan Finnegan, came to my home, met with my parents, and convinced them to let me go to college. She took me to her, alma mater, which was a small little college today. It's called Dominican University. At the time it was called Rosary College, and she took me there and showed me around and I fell in love with the place and all of a sudden we were filling out applications and I was accepted. I didn't even know then what I wanted to do. I only knew that I wanted to be like the people who I had seen around me, and that is I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to somehow find a way to teach religion or to help people discover the good around the world and in themselves. And so I decided to major in religious studies and before you know it, as you all know, college went by and there I was ready to graduate, and I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. and I went down to the Cardinal's office, the Archbishop of Chicago. He has right, a lot of different agencies, large offices, and I thought I'll apply here and maybe there'll be a job I can get as a religious studies major from Rosary College. And before you know it, I was interviewing with a young priest who is now an auxiliary bishop in Chicago, father King. And I was interviewing with him because the bishop had just decided to open up a peace and justice office, and this young priest was tapped ahead, the office. And as we were having a conversation, it was clear that he wasn't quite sure what to do either. And he said, you know what I need? He said, I need a secretary. And immediately I said, that's me. and I got the job as a secretary. I worked at the Archdiocese for 10 years. I eventually became the director of the Peace and Justice Office, and after 10 years, I had decided then to pursue a law degree. It was a natural to flow, really from working as a community organizer in doing social justice work. The next step was to look for more tools in the toolbox, if you will, to bring about social change. So that's how I ended up at Notre Dame because it seemed a natural place to study the law, right. In the context of faith, in the context of a tradition that I was comfortable with and that I had known. So I

Speaker 3 15:58

think we can all, there's no place like Notre Dame. Right. What was your experience like, being a law student at Notre Dame?

Speaker 4 16:06

You know, at first I would say it was lost. Um, it was really. It was, seemed like a large school to me. I mean, when I look at it now, right? Notre Dame is still small compared to many, many universities. Um, but the first year I really just focused on trying to understand, uh, the traditional curriculum of law and, and that is contracts, criminal law, criminal procedure. and it wasn't until my second year when I actually was hired to be an assistant rector. Suddenly everything turned for me in terms of understanding Notre Dame, understanding my place in the university, and being a part of a faith community that did some really good work. I was the assistant rector at Siegfried Hall, which at that time, right, it was created, it was a new dorm, but it was a women's dorm, and it turned my whole life around in terms of helping me understand the law as well as being a part of the university.

Speaker 3 17:02

Mm-hmm. I wonder if there's, yeah, there we go. We have some Siegfried slams here, Michelle. So Siegfried iss in the house.

Speaker 4 17:14

That's great.

Speaker 5 17:16

So, um, good evening Justice Hugh. we're moving on the theme of identity and intersectionality as the first Asian, first Latina and first openly LGBTQ person on the Washington Supreme Court. How has your intersectional identity shaped the way you approach your work as a justice?

Speaker 4 17:35

You know, I feel a sense of obligation and duty to try to bring my life experience to the table. we have nine justices. We're very diverse in every single way, and I feel that I just need to bring my life experience, right? Somebody from Chicago, somebody from a working class family. Somebody who identifies, um, with the L-G-B-T-Q community, somebody who is Latina speaks and speaks Spanish, right? Somebody who's Asian. I just feel that bringing the perspective of who I'm to the table enriches our conversation. the challenge of intersectionality is trying to sometimes just live with a sense of oneness, if you will, because we don't live. Cutting ourselves up into compartments, right. Today, I'm this, today I'm that. Well, we really are an integrated person with different experiences in a different way of reflecting on our life experience and culture. And sometimes things stand out more, than others. I have to just say, I just try to bring my whole self to the table every single time, recognizing that I may be the only one bringing that perspective, but I've been told by my colleagues. It enriches the conversation, and I think that's really what matters most

Speaker 5 18:54

Indeed. Absolutely. Indeed. With, with social and political attitudes around diversity, equity, inclusion shifting, how can people of color and L-G-B-T-Q individuals best navigate today's anti DEI backlash?

Empathy and Judicial Impartiality

Speaker 4 19:10

You know, uh, it's almost to me really simple and that is stay visible, stay visible, stay present to yourself and to others. and be proud of who you are. I think visibility is important and we have learned to feel comfortable, right? That this is indeed our country. Um, these are the principles that we care about and we need to maintain, uh, that same course in the sense of just be visible and feel comfortable and know that we are part of the fabric of this remarkable country. We helped create it. Uh, and we're here.

Speaker 5 19:43

Thank you.

Speaker 3 19:45

I think what you mentioned earlier about bringing your complete self to your work every day is really important, and I think the fact that you've always been genuine has been recognized right through your work. I, I did my, what I'll call research. You know, I kind of stalked you online and looked into your background and, just to make sure I was prepared for this conversation. And there was literally like a list of awards. That, that you've won, just for your great work, and I think that's amazing. clearly your leadership is, is one of a kind. and I'm curious to know, like you're widely recognized for your fairness and your compassion through your work, but how do you balance empathy with impartiality in your judicial philosophy?

Speaker 4 20:33

Yeah. Well, Rona, let lemme say one thing first, in terms of those awards. You know, I have to really tell you, um, and I'm not trying to just be humble, is I don't feel like I've done anything extraordinary. I think those awards are a way of a community recognizing themselves. Mm-hmm. Right. To be the first and to be there really just represents the fact that we've all made it in some ways. And so it's almost a mirror. And I think our communities are just proud of the fact that I'm there and it's a way of seeing themselves, which is why. You know, I love it. It's a way to celebrate our whole community. in regard to the question of being empathetic or compassionate and being impartial, you know, the word impartial often is misunderstood when you think about a judge, we're not sort of the potted plant, um, that just listens and then sort of spits out decisions. there really is a need for a judge to be a good listener. and being em empathetic means. Feeling what a person might be feeling in your courtroom, and that could be a witness who comes in and finally is able to tell the story of either a harm that's occurred to them or somebody who's been falsely accused. It's creating an environment that allows people to feel safe. That's the most important thing, but also now that I'm at the appellate level, I would say it's really important right through our writing to say to people, regardless of where we are on the case. We hear you and we see you. So there are many cases that we receive from people who are in prison and they may not get relief in some way, but how important it's to recognize them says so much about seeing them and hearing them, even though they don't get relief. And so I don't think it means, you know, not bringing that human aspect to our decisions. I'm proud that our court. He has worked very hard at trying to identify and see and name the humanity, and the wrong things that we have done right. Not be afraid to also name sexism, racism, and then trying to correct it in some way. I think that we don't somehow lose our sense of impartiality by responding to a human experience.

Speaker 3 22:48

Mm-hmm. That's, that's great to hear. Sometimes I feel like it's tough. You know, you hear, you have to keep your feelings aside, keep the empathy outta it, stick to the facts, stick to what's in front of you. So it's, it's really great to hear that you're able to have that balance.

Speaker 5 23:06

justice you, in terms of leadership and philosophy, is there a particular legal decision you've written or participated in that you feel especially proud of, not just for the legal impact. For its moral clarity or social resonance.

Speaker 4 23:21

Yeah. You know, being at the Supreme Court is unique in the sense that I don't have to agree with my other eight colleagues. when you're at an appellate level, you actually get to write and you get to write a dissent, but you get to write a concurrence. And what it is is right. It's an opportunity to say, ah, but this is how I see this particular situation. And there's one case that is a favorite of mine. and it is, state V Moretti. it, it's a case in which I actually wrote a concurrence and in the sense of saying, I agree that this is what the law requires us to decide, but in the concurrence, I was able to write about my dis with where we were. And that's because this was a case about sentences that were lifed without the possibility of release, especially for people who had committed crimes when they were young. It gave me a chance to talk about rejecting the idea that we're not redeemable. Um, because when somebody is sentenced to life without the possibility of release, right, you're taking away hope. You're taking away the idea that they can't be rehabilitated, they can't reenter society. So this decision gave me the opportunity to say, well, okay, I agree with where the law is in our state right now, but in the future it might change and here's why it should. Because I want to see us perfect our system, right? A system that does hold people accountable, but a system also that believes that as humans we are redeemable. Um, and that's my favorite, opinion. I'd have to say it is passionate and not shrill, but it reminds me on a daily basis, right? What my job is as a justice, is to again, see and hear and also call us all to be more than who we are today.

Speaker 5 25:10

Thanks for sharing that. I look forward to reviewing that opinion.

Speaker 3 25:14

Yeah. Just for those who don't have, a law background like myself, what happens to that opinion once it's written and how do you do revisit it up during a certain point in time?

Speaker 4 25:26

Well, our court is really a fan of transparency and public communication and education. So as soon as our decision is ready to be published, it's literally put up on our website. Um, that's how we announce our decisions. It just goes up on the website. It's part of a long tradition of, again, trying to write in a way that people can understand, number one, and two, trying to make sure that people have access to the decisions and understand why. Our court also was one of the first in the world, uh, to have live proceedings. So all of our oral arguments. Have been on tv, our local public television for over 25 years. Every argument has been archived. So again, people can understand and access the arguments and understand the decisions. Those decisions are presidential, they're binding on our court and our lower courts. to write a concurrence, and I enjoy doing that is because it just gives somebody another take on the point of law. I might say again, I agree. Here's my unique perspective, and this is something I want a future court to consider and to think about. I think the same is true in terms of dissent, right? People sometimes write defense, right? To say, I not only disagree with how the court resolve this, but here future court. Let me invite you to think about this because there might be a time when you'll revisit and maybe you'll take a second look. So writing is very important for appellate courts and I, I love it. It's, it's a chance to talk to the futures, a chance to also have a conversation with the justice from, you know, 19, 20, who wrote to me, uh, in a dissent at some point.

Speaker 3 27:10

Mm-hmm. And along those lines, how do you cultivate courage when facing those difficult decisions, especially when those, those that may be unpopular or politically charged?

Speaker 4 27:24

We do. and, and the thing that makes Washington State also unique is the justices are elected. Uh, we're nonpartisan, nonpolitical, but we are elected positions. So the question comes often is, gosh, you know, how do you not bow to public pressure? And I'd have to say that my colleagues, um, have taught me a lot about how not to even pay any attention to what public opinion is in regard to our decisions. They are courageous, recognizing that our job, right, whether you lose it or not, our job at the current moment is just to decide the case, to do the best that we can to discern and discuss with one another, and really resolve a case in front of us. we aren't concerned with how that plays or how that may fall in the broader society. And I'm proud of that. I'm proud that there's no one on our court who somehow bows down to pressure even though we are elected. And you know what, Rona it, it's easy when you start to practice it. When you practice courage, it's easy. Um, you don't even begin to think about it. You just say, this is the course, this is the right thing to do, and then you just do it. Um, we can't be people who are wavering, um, because of the positions that we have.

Speaker 3 28:39

Not Dame. So of course it's easy to have courage.

Speaker 5 28:45

Uh, justice Hugh, and on the theme of mentorship and community, what role has mentorship played in your journey and how do you pay it forward to the next generation of lawyers, especially women plus folks and people of color?

Mentors And Paying Back

Speaker 4 28:59

Thank you. I, I would for asking that, you know, I could not be here if I didn't have mentors. I think most of us would agree that nobody accomplishes anything alone. And from the youngest of age, right, from that high school teacher, who would just even dare to say, Mary, are you thinking about going to college? All of my life I've had mentors. You know, I learned how to give a public speech from Father Kane, right? The bishop in Chicago there, who was teaching me not only how to be a secretary, but also right how to give a compelling speech. He mentored me when I was a lawyer. The prosecutor there mentored me to be able to sift through a case and see what is the answer to true justice, because our job was not to secure convictions, right? But to seek justice. And then as a judge, in the same way as people who would teach me to find clarity in some way. So I have to admit that most important thing for me has been to turn around and do the same, especially for young women of color. That's been very important to me, to be available, to answer questions, to walk with people in their career. Choices, choices, um, for young lawyers, right, to convince them to stay in the practice of law and not leave. I helped develop a program, uh, it's called the Washington Leadership Institute that was founded, uh, in the state of Washington. And I was lucky enough to co-chair that program for some 17 years. It was a formal leadership training program for people who traditionally didn't have access to leadership positions, and we discovered, right, people were simply looking for a cohort, for a community, for somebody to give them the courage to make life decisions. I think it's really important that we always pay back, right? That we help somebody else also achieve success, and for them to discover their own talents and gifts. I enjoy doing that through, uh, the Seattle University Law School, which is the local law school here in Seattle. I can't imagine, not mentoring and not assisting someone, uh, develop and build their own skills and confidence to be successful.

Speaker 5 31:04

Thank you for that commitment. Thank you.

Speaker 3 31:06

So I wanna go back to what Jeremy mentioned earlier. Um, you were known to be the first to officiate the same sex marriage in Washington. Um, that was back in December, 2012, right? So that's almost 13 years ago. You've officiated hundreds of weddings since then, but what was that particular moment, the moment that you, you officiated the first same sex marriage, what was that like for you knowing that you had made history?

Speaker 4 31:33

You know, first of all, I hadn't really done a lot of weddings before then. when I look back, I had good friends who were judges who'd say, oh, you really need to do this. It's great. and I just, you know, it wasn't available to everyone and it was just something about it that I just didn't feel comfortable doing. When the law passed in the state of Washington, and it passed by referendum, and that is by popular vote. Because the legislature hadn't done it, our court had rejected, uh, the right to marry. And so it became a popular vote. and I remember watching television that night and couldn't believe that this was happening in real time. That here the people of Washington were the ones who said, oh, no, we want everyone to be able to marry the person that they love. Well, there was a day of enactment of that referendum and my law clerk bailiff at the time was a young Asian man named au yada au ya was of mixed race. his father was Japanese, his mother, was white. And he told me the story that his parents, at the time they were going to be married, had to move to a different state in order to be married. Right? Because interracial couples could not be married under the law at the time. He said, I always remembered that judge. He said, and I just have to say, this law is going to become effective at this time at midnight. And he said, you know what? Let's do the first marriage at 1201. He said, because why should people have

Speaker 3 33:03

to, oh,

Speaker 4 33:04

one more minute. He said, let's do it. And I thought, okay, the gal, okay, if we can get the courthouse to open up at midnight, I'm game. Let's do it. And all of the people in the courthouse volunteered. The security officers said, Hey, we're here. We'll open up. We'll turn the lights on. We'll welcome everyone. And we were intending to really do one. And all of a sudden people called because we weren't gonna give anybody special privileges. It was really whoever called was gonna be the first. And then we had a second, and then we had a third. And I have to admit that I did weddings until seven in the morning. One after the other, after the other. Oh,

Speaker 3 33:37

wow.

Speaker 4 33:38

And it happened to be that the first couple were two teachers. From the northern part of the state in Vermont to school to school teachers, I had done their adoption and they called and now I was able to actually, perform their wedding ceremony. It was remarkable. It was, very sentimental for me, but also for the couples, all of them to have the ability to come together in a public place and have the state recognize their relationship was just a very special moment. So I feel honored, I feel privileged to have that, place in history, but it was because of my law clerk bailiff and his vision and his life experience, that really got me to do that.

Speaker 3 34:20

Mm-hmm. And you said it was after there were seven after total. For that, that evening

Speaker 4 34:27

there were more than

Speaker 3 34:28

seven.

Speaker 4 34:29

I did it till 7:00 AM

Speaker 3 34:30

until 7:00 AM Oh, wow. Okay. We pulled an all-nighter. We did, we did pull an all-nighter.

Speaker 5 34:43

there was, there were some pre-submitted questions and we wanted to talk to you about, uh, a little bit about that. how is the court going about enforcing civil decisions by courts?

Advocacy Without Fear

Speaker 4 34:56

You know, courts can only, I mean, as you know, we don't have an army. We don't have the military. We don't have, the ability to sort of clobber people into doing things. We have the coercive power to do things, and it's very different in terms of a trial court and an appellate court. Um, trial courts can really, hold people in contempt pretty readily. Um, but I'm gonna give you an example of when our court stepped into history as well, and enforced a civil order in a most unusual way. And that is, there was a challenge that came to our court. On the funding of public schools in the state of Washington. And the question was interpreting a constitutional provision on what did it mean that our constitution said that education was a paramount duty of the state of the legislature, and we interpreted the paramount duty to require the legislature to fund public schools. eventually that was an order of our court. It was a decision. And the parties asked us to retain the case to force compliance. It was unusual, right to force the legislature to actually fund public schools in the state of Washington. And we did that. We retained the case, and then the legislature didn't fund public schools in a way that would fulfill the obligation under our court decision. And so the parties filed a motion for contempt. And said to us, you have to hold the legislature in contempt. And of course, as you can imagine, many people said, throw legislature into the, into jail, make them pay for public schools. we couldn't do that, right? But we did issue financial sanctions for each day that the legislature did not convene, inappropriate funds for the legislature. We held them in contempt with the imposition of a monetary sanction. And the money added up. And the money added up. and we were a, in a little bit of disbelief ourself in some ways about how long it took, but eventually the legislature appropriated the funds, paid the sanctions, and for some time everybody was quite happy in the sense that there was peace among the branches. The governor, agreed as well that it was the duty of the legislature to fund public schools at an appropriate level. That's one example of how courts might do it. It takes years, it takes patience with one another. but you know, the one thing that I'd have to say that's really important for the lawyers in the room who will understand this is courts also have to recognize there are limitations. We don't have unlimited power, we have a limited power. and it's important for us to be very careful, in exercising it. Circumstances, but we also had a very respectful relationship with the legislature and the governor, and everybody knew, what we were all doing, but it was respectful, and slow and deliberate.

Speaker 3 37:59

Thank you. Another, um, another pre-submitted question. this comes from Denise Delarosa class of 2004. She'd like to know. What recommendations would you have for everyday citizens who wanna advocate for change and fight against illegal and oppressive policies and practices currently sweeping our nation

Speaker 4 38:21

well, without commenting on the political environment, you know, I would say it, it's really important. For every single individual to always exercise the political voice in this country. Um, that's who we're, and, you know, it worries me if people feel they need to be silent, um, because they're afraid of conflict with their family or with their neighbor. how we engage in dialogue is important, right? We need to be civil, we need to be respectful. But the worst thing that we can do is to step back and remain silent. If we really believe that there are, is an injustice or atrocities occurring, or human rights violations or civil rights, whatever the issue might be, the worst thing is to remain silent. We're a country that has grown up, if you will, on the voices of individuals, right? We have a strong history and tradition of a strong labor movement. And the labor movement really is the collective voice of workers. It's a mechanism to be heard. You look at the community based organizations and parishes, all around the country, right, who've exercised voice in the past. And so I would say the most important thing is exercise your voice. Exercise the right to vote, of course, but more importantly is engage in a dialogue, be heard, and, and raise that voice when you feel there is an injustice. Uh, we should never let bullies win no matter what, whether that's on the school yard or whether that's in a political arena. Always retain your voice in the right to participate.

1 39:59

And speaking of, and speaking of, um, you know, speaking up and using your voice. now we have some, an in per an in-person audience, uh, question from an audience member. Um, uh, that's very timely, uh, for, um, this month's, uh, heritage month. So this question is from sang Lee in the chat. He's from the class of 2005 and JD class of 2009, and also fellow Morrissey Manor right as well. So, promise, I'm not too biased there, but saying, Lee says, um. What do you think justice, you are some of the biggest challenges and opportunities for Asian Americans in the legal field?

Speaker 4 40:40

Gosh, probably the biggest challenges for us, is to continue to challenge the stereotypes. I think probably we are cast stereotypically maybe more than any other group today. and part of it could be is coming off of. A COVID era, that really, sort of, you know, put us into, a spot where we were forced to be defensive in so many ways. And in our community, at least I know in Washington state, it hit people step back from being visible. in, in many, many ways. And so I would say the greatest challenge for us is not to be afraid to step up, not be afraid, to pursue areas where traditionally people might say, well, no, that's not you. yeah, no, we are litigators. Yes, we are trial lawyers and trial judges. Um, we're not all transactional lawyers. we just need to not be afraid to, own who we are and feel comfortable practicing law. I would say also claiming our tradition of helping to build this country. We're not all newcomers. We just didn't arrive. We have been here making this country great, just like so many other immigrant groups. I think those are our greatest challenges. and I think it's important that we develop the networks like you have here. Right? Mutual support. Find ways to encourage each other and work with other groups, uh, find what is common among us. Each one of us needs to call one another to greatness, and the more we can define what we have in common, frankly, the better we all rise together. For sure.

1 42:16

Thank you Justice Yu. And thank you Sang Lee for that question. Rona and Edward, are there other pre-submitted questions that we'd like to explore? Sure.

Speaker 5 42:27

there is a question. About what is a what? What is a notion of justice that you find to be unique or prevalent among the API community? Do you like it or would you change it?

Speaker 4 42:42

Gosh, a notion of justice. You know, I don't know if I could categorically say this is a notion of justice in our community. I just have to say. My experience, my personal experience of the Filipino community, uh, in Seattle, and I've had so many of my friends, uh, say this as well is right, the kindness and generosity, that just fills every celebration. and I would have to say, when I think about the notions of justice that flow from that community, it would be a sense of inclusivity. Love for so many. I have always, always loved going to Filipino community events because of that, because of the positivity,'cause of the love and the generosity, to so many, so the notions of justice, right, are very human. And I think when you translate that into what the law can do, I, I think that's clear enough, right? There's, there's room in the law for forgiveness, for love, for compassion. For giving people opportunities and being generous.

Speaker 3 43:57

Filipinos love to party. Yes, we do. We're not, we're among the Asian communities and cultures. I feel like we're one of the loudest, you know, my family certainly is. We have a question from Shirley t. What role do state Supreme Courts play in addressing the rise of book bans, particularly those targeting children's literature with lgbtq plus themes? How do state courts stay impartial given the changes on DEI, which could increase a tolerance of soft censoring of these books? It's a great question.

Speaker 4 44:39

It is a great question and, and lemme take a, a, a moment to step back and just remind everyone that there are 51 constitutions that govern this country, right? 50 states, 50 constitutions, and then one federal constitution. And the beauty of it all is each state Supreme Court is the exclusive interpreter of their own state constitution. Not all issues are gonna come to state Supreme Courts. The issues of book banning will only come before a state Supreme Court if it arises right from local law, local issues. and it depends on how the question comes up, right? Is it really a question of the use or use of power by a local school board? Is it a local school district? Is it a teacher? You know, so book ban really is a very broad category. Um, so much is gonna depend on what action is taken and that will determine who gets to decide the issue, right? It's, if it's truly a federal question of first amendment expression, that might go to a federal court. But again, if it's an issue of a state actor taking state action, then it's gonna come to us. and maybe turn on a different question that touches on book banning. Let me tell you, about our port in terms of the role that we play, not in addressing book bans, but in addressing reading and books, and that is our court has partnered with our state wall library and our campaign is a campaign on reading each of our justices. It's almost like baseball cards, but each of us has a bookworm. And the bookmark is a profile of ourselves and a favorite quote. And then on the back is read. And our goal and our purpose is to have young children read before a certain age, because we all know that if you're not reading right by the third grade, you're really gonna possibly be lost and left out. And so this read campaign is an effort to bring books to schools and to talk with young children about reading. And so we have taken part of our budget and actually purchased books to be distributed in the state of Washington on topics that are important to us and right. And topics that have been important to us have included topics related to our indigenous population, to the L-G-D-P-Q population, to all of the justices, that we see now on our state Supreme Court Justice. Right. Brown Jackson has. Three or four books already. Children's books written about her, and her journey to be a justice. Justice so has written her own books are remarkable. So we have spent some of our budget, buying these books and distributing them to libraries and public schools and taking them while we go out to talk to schools, to try to promote reading. some people say, well, gosh, this doesn't make sense. Why would a Supreme Court do this? And it's because we know and we really believe, um, that our job is also to try to promote, among every single child the idea that they belong, right? We belong to them and they belong to us. We want them to understand that courts exist, judges exist, lawyers exist. That there are three, right, three parts of our government. It's a tripartite form of government, and it's important to try to teach them that from the very beginning in first, second, third, and fourth grade. So our, we're not about book banning, we're about book distribution, distribution. we wanna make books available, uh, to everyone and we feel personally responsible to help do that.

Service And Pro Bono

Speaker 3 48:31

Good initiative. I don't see any more questions in the chat. Edward.

Speaker 5 48:40

Sure. you know, you've, you've been so known for your community engagement. What are some ways, this, this is the question, what are some way young, some ways young professionals can stay grounded in service, no matter their field, but I would add too senior professionals perhaps, who have retired and wanna continue service, uh, as they move forward in that area of their lives as well.

Speaker 4 49:01

Yeah. Well, the one thing that Notre Dame is really good at, right, is community service. Teaching all of us that community service should be part of our identity and part of our life. Um, as a lawyer, you should be doing pro bono work regardless of whether or not your bar association requires it. We should be providing pro bono work If you're not a lawyer, right, you should still be doing some sort of community service. So many not-for-profit organizations would be so grateful to have somebody as educated as you sitting on their board or being involved in some way. If he have particular views about what may be going on in the country in regard to immigration, right? You can help teach citizenship classes. There are so many community groups in communities of color or in, pockets of larger cities that just need to have somebody, again, as educated as you who's willing to help them be successful. I would say you're gonna be enriched no matter what you do. my intent, I have to just say, is. To continue to try to work with young lawyers. I feel a particular calling to make sure that our lawyers feel that they belong. because we have too many lawyers leaving, uh, the profession, especially women of color, that I just feel my job is to try to make sure they can find space, uh, where they feel important and they feel recognized because they don't want them to leave. When somebody's gone through the work of educating themselves to be a lawyer, the worst thing is for us to lose them.

Speaker 5 50:31

Indeed. Thank you.

1 50:32

Thank you. Justice U I'd like to ask the final question for, to, for this afternoon, and I think it's a very timely question from, uh, one of our pre-submitted questions. So this question comes from Sarah Cartoonist from the class of 2015. Again, I graduated in 2015. Maybe I'm a little biased again. She also, um, earned a master's in 2017 and a JD in 2020. She asks, how do we remain hopeful in our institutions, especially in our courts during these times?

Closing Thanks And Call

Speaker 4 51:09

Well, you know, I, you have to first of all believe, in courts and the functions that we play, and I think if you have been tracking. Recent decisions. I think you can appreciate the good work that so many of the judges are actually, the good work that they're doing across the country. There is an earnest desire to try to do the right thing. you know, tomorrow is a really important case. Um, being heard in front of the US Supreme Court, I think tune in, understand the arguments, understand uh, the issues, and help people understand what those issues are. As lawyers, we have a responsibility to help, right? People get beyond the headlines of the news, help them appreciate the nuances of what really is being argued and what really is being decided. Again, I think tomorrow it's gonna be an interesting question about the future of courts and the ability to decide, right, national injunctions or not. It may seem like a small question, but it's a big question, and again, lawyers can play a role in helping to educate others about it. We remain hopeful because we have to say, in my opinion, we've come a long way. the history of this country has been checkered. as Asians, we know, right? We know what it's like to be incarcerated as a citizen. We know what it's like to be called an enemy today. even though you're not, we know that we know, um, that black Americans throughout history have been treated as second class citizens. What gives me hope is that this country stepped forward and rejected those notions of injustice. People spoke up, people believed in the laws, people believed in the courts, people fought, and you know what we want at the end of the day. and so it's not perfect. It's not a straight line. The most important thing is that we never give up hope, and we continue to believe that collectively together, this nation will survive, will survive. Nation of rules and laws, and again, we have us up, up and downs, but I believe that we're gonna survive because I believe in us. I believe in all of you I see on the screen right now. Each of you are people of good faith who care. It's your voice. It's gonna make a difference. It

1 53:28

Thank you, justice you. And so I'd like to close today's program again by, mm-hmm. Making gratitude and attitude and really just thanking Justice Mary you for, her insights today, for her story, for her example as a Notre Dame alumna. Thank you to all the audience members, to all the viewers of this recording for joining us today for this meaningful conversation. And you know, as I, as we reflect on Justice Hughes story and her insights, I think they remind us of the power of courage, compassion, and community. And so I think that this, is definitely a call to action for all of us to really, Really capture how we each can play a part in shaping a more just and inclusive world. And so on behalf of the A PA community, the ARC community, we're so grateful for all of the audience members today for their presence and look forward to staying connected. So take care and go Irish.