“The Law is Ours” host Janelle Romero
Screenshot via NYCBA
New Yorkers have questions about the state of U.S. democracy. The New York City Bar Association has some answers — now presented in short-form video format.
The City Bar Association launched a daily social video series several weeks ago called “The Law is Ours,” which tackles a variety of different civic questions related to the concept of the rule of law.
The video campaign, hosted by employment attorney and self-described “TikTok creator” Janelle Romero, comes as the City Bar’s new President Matthew Diller said the organization must do more to contribute to a general sense of civic education around legal issues.
“Our goal is to give everyone – not just lawyers – a sense of power and agency in the legal system. ‘The Law is Ours’ will focus on both educating the public about our system of laws and about how key rights apply in our daily lives,” Diller said in a statement.
The New York City Bar Association’s midtown building.Photo by Epicgenius/Wikimedia Commons
Each day, the bar association has been posting a 90-second video written to explain a different facet of our legal system’s role in democratic governance. The videos include explainers on the Electoral College and an attempt to answer whether the president can sell a pardon (the answer: it’s gotten harder to enforce in recent years).
So far, Romero’s most-watched videos on the bar association channel hinge on questions around whether the federal government has impinged on constitutional rights: an explanation of Kilmar Armando Ábrego García’s deportation saga and the legal limits on self-enrichment for the president’s family, among others.
The video series is the result of a series of focus groups the bar association held. It concluded that its members thought the general public needed more opportunities to learn about their legal protections and norms.
In the focus groups, non-attorneys also expressed a desire to learn more about legal basics to help them navigate current events
The video series is available on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.