Established 1936 – John A. Collins, President

EMBASSY SUITES BY HILTON, GRAND RAPIDS DOWNTOWN

Big E's Sports Grille

710 Monroe Avenue NW, Grand Rapids

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2025 – 7:00 AM

Founded in 1950 by A. Philip Randolph, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is committed to social justice and the concept that the civil rights struggle cannot be won by a single group, but rather through coalition.

There are 11 Task Forces within the Conference. One of them is the Fair Courts Task Force and Lena Zwarensteyn is the Director, with the task to ensure the nomination and confirmation of judicial nominees who will protect and defend civil and human rights. She will discuss the topic Courts Matter: Judges and Equal Justice.

What is fairness in the selection of members of the federal court? Think back to the last few general elections when you got to the part on the ballot of selecting local judges. What did you honestly know about them? Is the Missouri Plan being used for selection of federal judges?

Invocation: Eric Nelson
Introduction: Lody Zwarensteyn

Judges

1. “If you are going to be a good and faithful judge, you have to resign yourself to the fact that you’re not always going to like the conclusions you reach. If you like them all the time, you’re probably doing something wrong.” – Antonin Scalia
2. “Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”– Ruth Bader Ginsburg
3. “Four things belong to a judge: to listen courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly and to decide impartially.” – Socrates
4. “Judges are the weakest link in our system of justice, and they are also the most protected.” – Alan Dershowitz