What’s more important: The safety of survivors and communities, or allowing adjudicated abusers to possess firearms?
This is the case before the Supreme Court this November. Does the current Supreme Court's interpretation of the Second Amendment make current law prohibiting firearm access by these abusers unconstitutional? U.S. v Rahimi addresses the intersection of gun violence and DV and will either uphold or undo Federal law criminalizing abusers’ access to firearms.
Join us on October 18th, when an expert panel will dissect the case, the far reaching implications for survivors and communities, and what you can do to make a difference.
Moderated by JWI’s Chief Program Officer Deborah Rosenbloom, the panel includes: Shira Feldman, Litigation Counsel at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence; Rachel Graber, Deputy Project Director for the Firearms Technical Assistance Project (FTAP) at the Battered Women’s Justice Project (BWJP); and Katherine St. Romain, litigation associate, Fried, Frank.
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SPEAKERS
Shira Lauren Feldman is Litigation Counsel at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, where she leads Brady’s Second Amendment litigation and its amicus work. In that capacity, she represents governments whose gun safety laws are being challenged, and she advises governments on best strategies and practices for responding to legal challenges to gun safety laws. She also supports the defense of gun safety laws on a wide array of issues with a robust amicus practice in federal and state court.
Before joining Brady, Shira represented genocide victims and other persecuted groups as a litigation partner at a law firm. She also was a law clerk to Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo and Chief Judge Dora L. Irizarry, both in the Eastern District of New York.
Shira is a graduate of Columbia University, cum laude and with honors in Political Science, and New York University School of Law, where she was an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow.
Rachel Graber is the Vice President of Government Relations and Advocacy at Jewish Women International (JWI). Prior to joining JWI, she was the Deputy Project Director for the Firearms Technical Assistance Project at the Battered Women’s Justice Project, the Director of Public Policy at the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the Director of Public Affairs at the joined National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Throughout her career, Graber has focused on amplifying the voices of victims, survivors and advocates in the nation’s capital. She has been instrumental in the development and passage of important legislation to protect survivors, to provide services, and to keep firearms out of the hands of abusers, including the VOCA Fix Act to Sustain the Crime Victims Fund, the 2022 Violence Against Women Act, and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. She has authored or co-authored numerous book chapters, white papers, and other publications focused on the intersection of domestic violence and firearms, and she was one of the creative forces behind Disarm Domestic Violence, a website providing holistic information about state laws addressing firearm possession by adjudicated abusers, including information for survivors about how to get protection under state law.
Prior to joining the domestic violence movement, Graber was a junior/senior high school guidance counselor and equity coordinator in rural Iowa. Graber holds a Master of Social Work Degree and a Master of School Counseling with an Endorsement in Gifted Education from the University of Iowa and is a graduate of Grinnell College.
Katherine St. Romain is a litigation associate resident in Fried Frank's Washington, DC office. She joined the firm in 2016.
Katherine's practice focuses on white collar criminal and regulatory matters, corporate investigations, and complex commercial litigation. She has represented clients in connection with criminal and regulatory investigations conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the New York Attorney General, and the New York County District Attorney's Office. Katherine also has represented government contractors, including major defense and aerospace clients, in matters involving bid protests.
As part of her pro bono practice, Katherine has worked on federal appellate briefs advocating for the right to counsel for youth in immigration hearings and for women's reproductive rights. As part of the litigation team, Katherine received the Jack Wasserman Memorial Award from the American Immigration Lawyers Association for excellence in litigation in the field of immigration law, The American Lawyer's Litigator of the Week, and Law360's Legal Lions (two-time winner). Katherine was named to the 2020 Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll with high honors, which recognizes attorneys who contributed at least 100 hours of pro bono service in the calendar year.
Deborah Rosenbloom (moderator), JD/MPA is JWI’s Chief Program Officer and leads JWI’s innovative social justice initiatives engaging Jewish, interfaith and secular communities in collaborative work to address gender-based violence through advocacy, trainings, resource development and community building.
Deborah served as the primary researcher of JWI’s 2021 Needs Assessment of Jewish domestic violence survivors in the US. The Needs Assessment’s findings are driving JWI’s new work, for which Deborah has ongoing primary responsibility including the National Center on Domestic & Sexual Violence in the Jewish Community; the Women’s Financial Empowerment Institute; and the Jewish Gun Violence Prevention Roundtable. Deborah led JWI’s amicus curiae brief in US v Rahimi, urging the Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of prohibiting abusers from accessing firearms.
Deborah’s recognition that the faith-based community can play an important role in addressing domestic violence led her to establish JWI’s advocacy portfolio on Capitol Hill, as well as the Clergy Task Force on Domestic Abuse in the Jewish Community and the Interfaith Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
Deborah holds a B.A., cum laude in history from Cornell, attended Hebrew University in Jerusalem and earned a JD/MPA from Syracuse University. She lives in Washington, D.C.