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On Tuesday, October 8, over 250 people pressed into the auditorium at Mitchell Hamline School of Law for the fourth-annual Hon. Steven E. Rau \u201983 Memorial Lecture. The din of conversation smoothed into applause as former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Mitchell Hamline President and Dean Camille Davidson took their seats on the stage. The two would fill the next hour with a fireside chat about civility and its impact on public institutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cCivility is the grease that makes government work,\u201d Holder said, making an analogy he would return to throughout the night. He pointed out that we often think about civility only applying to our speech, but it is also about behavior.<\/p>\n
The importance of civility was a closely held value by U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven E. Rau \u201983, for whom this lecture series was established. In her remarks opening the event, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright \u201906 noted that Judge Rau, who passed away in 2019, was well known in the legal and Mitchell Hamline communities, and he was committed to civility and collegiality in the legal profession.<\/p>\n
Holder, who served as attorney general from 2009-15 under President Obama, said the United States seems particularly uncivil right now, but this is not so different from what has been seen in our history. \u201cWe\u2019ve always been a loud nation,\u201d he said. There will always be people on either side who are zealots, but there is a middle who can disagree in a civil way. This middle seems to have shrunk slightly in recent years, Holder said, and our public institutions are not accomplishing as much as they could be. Yet, he remains optimistic that we will get through this era of incivility.<\/p>\n
Several factors contribute to the current erosion of trust. In the public\u2019s eye, institutions like the legislature and the judiciary have become increasingly politicized, and trust in the U.S. Supreme Court has been eroded. \u201cWe can\u2019t take precedents upon which people have relied and ordered their lives, and just kind of cast them aside, 40- or 50-year-old precedents, simply because you now have the numbers,\u201d Holder said. Today\u2019s 24-hour news cycle has also not helped, as media features the extremes and minutiae of issues to fill the news cycle. Seeing bad behavior only normalizes it and perpetuates the cycle of incivility.<\/p>\n
Holder provided some perspective on how to encourage civility in the legal sphere, in academia, and in relationships.<\/p>\n
First, he stressed the importance of information. \u201cThe ultimate destructor of stereotypes is facts,\u201d he said. \u201cEducation is best when students are always questioning.\u201d Probing deeper, listening to others, and asking questions are how progress is made. When asked about how civil dialogue could be promoted around sensitive topics such as the situation in the Middle East, Holder reiterated the need for facts. \u201cToo often these conversations get hijacked by people on the margins, who don\u2019t know history, who don\u2019t want solutions, who only want their side to \u2018win.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Second, he said knowledge and familiarity are bedrock principles for civility. \u201cCivility is grounded in knowledge of the other person, in empathy and familiarity.\u201d When you know and understand someone, even if they hold opposing stances from you, it prevents you from easily demonizing them or their side.<\/p>\n
Holder also pointed out that using civility is not an absolute. In 2018, with respect to how to approach Republicans in Congress, he famously revised Michelle Obama\u2019s call for civility from \u201cWhen they go low, we go high\u201d to \u201cWhen they go low, we kick them.\u201d We should always strive for civility, he said, \u201cbut not at the expense of principle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even further, civility should exist at all levels of our lives. \u201cIf civility is the grease that makes government function, then it\u2019s the glue in our personal relationships,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During the final minutes of the lecture, Holder broke away from the fireside chat format to speak directly to the Mitchell Hamline audience, particularly the law students. \u201cI have in front of me at this great institution people who are the best and the brightest, who are the leaders of this community,\u201d he said to them. \u201cThe reality is that every social movement in this country at the end of the day has been led by lawyers, and by young people.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou all have the capacity and the responsibility to make this nation better. Positive change is not promised\u2014it\u2019s only the function of hard work, and commitment, and sacrifice, which we\u2019re trained for as lawyers. I\u2019m optimistic about where we\u2019re going to go. We can do this. We can get to, I think, a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n
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