Democratic officials discuss inequality in US at law school event

Three officials discussed ways to combat inequality in law in a talk given Thursday to about 60 students at the UCLA School of Law.

The law school’s chapter of the American Constitution Society, a national progressive legal organization, held the event as part of a series about inequality in the law, said Nick Warshaw, co-president of the chapter and a second-year law student.

California State Treasurer John Chiang, University of California Regent and Assembly Speaker Emeritus John Pérez, and Bruce Reed, president of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden and former CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, spoke about the causes of inequality in the United States and the possible solutions.

When selecting speakers to contact for the series, the group tried to balance between politicians directly involved in lawmaking as well as government experts, Warshaw said.

“We thought (Chiang, Pérez and Reed) would be a nice balance,” Warshaw said. “We wanted to expose students to variety of perspectives from Washington, D.C. to Sacramento.”

The men, all Democrats, frequently spoke of economic policy in the aftermath of the Great Recession, comparing California’s recovery favorably to that of other states.

Péerez, describing Chiang and himself as fiscal conservatives, stressed the importance of openness to counterintuitive ideas for economic growth and policy solutions to income and wealth inequality.

“We cannot let others think that progressives aren’t the fiscally responsible ones,” he said. “Look at Democratic presidential administration versus Republican. The majority of expansion has been under Democrats.”

He recalled working for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the aftermath of the economic downturn, citing the choice not to cut the budget by cutting jobs as critical to California’s job recovery.

Reed said that he thinks large immigrant populations have helped boost American economies by providing a younger workforce, adding that he thinks the government should try to attract as many immigrants as possible to the country through immigration law reform.

“The true progressive long view is to push opportunity and reform at the same time,” Reed said. “It’s not about the number of programs we have or institutions we build.”

Reed encouraged the law students in the audience to pursue teaching in the future as a means of fighting inequality.

“A priority that you should carry with you when you leave this place is that any child, regardless of circumstance or zip code, goes to a great public school,” he said. “It will be great day when parents are proud of children for becoming teachers, not just going to law school or medical school.”

Olivia Powar, a first-year law student, said she found the talk inspiring.

“I used to be a teacher, and it made me think about the importance of what I was doing and how I can take my legal career and apply it to make changes in education,” Powar said.

Lauren Kaye, another first-year law student, said she enjoyed the talk but wished the panelists had time to address other issues related to inequality, such as homelessness.

The next talk in the series will likely be held in fall, Warshaw said.

Future series will likely focus on civil forfeiture, education inequity and gender inequality, he added.