Supporting Our Muslim Neighbors
This year Dee, my spouse, and I became more politically active than we have been in the past. We marched in the MLK Seattle march for the first time and in the women’s march the day after inauguration. We carried a sign saying, “No Muslim Registry” on one side and “Black Lives Matter” on the other side. We attended an event featuring Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, as the keynote speaker. Read more 
2017 Law Day Marks Increased Focus on Legal Profession, Recognizes Impact of 14th Amendment
Happy Law Day! I’m Sanjay Walvekar, the new legal community outreach specialist at the WSBA. I’m excited for this opportunity to introduce myself and to share my thoughts on this important holiday. Read more
NWLawyer: Noah Purcell on How Washington State Blocked Trump’s Travel Ban
This month’s cover of NWLawyer is dedicated to Washington’s Solicitor General Noah Purcell, who went head to head with the Trump administration in the Ninth Circuit Court to stop the president’s travel ban in its tracks. In this probing Q&A, Purcell shares his thoughts on Washington v. Trump and reveals how he and his colleagues in the state Attorney General’s Office put their case together over a weekend. Read more
From Nomination to Confirmation: The U.S. Supreme Court Confirmation Process
More than a year after the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the Senate Judiciary Committee has finally completed confirmation hearings to fill the vacancy, and the full Senate is poised to vote amid threat of filibuster. President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch began his confirmation hearing on March 20. The procedure for nominating and confirming justices to the Supreme Court of the United States involves several steps. Here’s how the confirmation process works. Read more
Supreme Court on Use of Refusal to Submit to Field Sobriety Tests: No Clear Holding
In State v. Mecham, the Washington Supreme Court issued a fractured opinion in a DUI prosecution in which the state entered into evidence the defendant’s refusal to perform field sobriety tests (FST). Although the court stated in its June 16 ruling it was affirming the defendant’s conviction, the actual result appears to reverse the conviction in a 5-4 vote, with the reasoning behind the outcome ending up in a 4-1-2-2 split. Read more
