Mobilization Recap: Creating Sustainable Change

To ease you into the weekend, here are some thoughts on the Mobilization Panel from the Constitution in 2020 Conference.  The panel was comprised of a diverse group of practitioners and scholars—it was moderated by Professor Bill Eskridge, Yale Law School, and the panel participants were Marshall Ganz, Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Addisu Demissie, Organizing for America (previously Obama for America); Judy Scott, Service Employees International Union; and Professor Michael Wishnie, Yale Law School.  Since we have the video of the panel (below), I thought I would avoid summarizing each participant’s remarks.  Instead, I would like to point out a few strands to the conversation that are worth reflecting on.

Video courtesy of Yale Law School.

While the participants in the conference’s earlier panels were deeply concerned with issues of constitutional doctrine and legal policy, the Mobilization panelists were more focused on the structure of organizing, the sustainability of change, and the utilization of community resources.  The motivating factor for the organizing seemed to be the representation of the perspectives of minority groups that have been historically neglected, rather than the active creation of support for constitutional principles at the community level.