Doors Open: 5:30PM
Film Begins: 6:00PM (please arrive early to allow time for check in and concessions)
American Public Square is excited to partner with Glenwood Arts Theater to screen PUBLIC DEFENDER and open a retrospective discussion on January 6th, five years after the fact. This film follows Heather Shaner, a feisty, blue-haired defense attorney in Washington, DC, who has spent over 45 years representing people who can’t afford a lawyer. But her empathy is tested when a violent mob supporting outgoing President Donald Trump storms the U.S. Capitol.
She is assigned to represent Jack Griffith, a social media influencer, and Annie Howell, a single mother and painter. As Heather gets to know her clients, she discovers Jack and Annie were deceived by misinformation and thought they’d joined a righteous defense of democracy, not an authoritarian wave.
PUBLIC DEFENDER explores the delicate state of U.S. democracy, the forces threatening to tear it apart, and the people dedicated to protecting it. When trust is lost amidst a growing political divide, the unlikely bonds between Heather and her clients reveal how people can rise above the fray to find each other’s humanity.
After the screening:
Presidential Power, Accountability, and the Legacy of January 6
Following the screening of Public Defender, this panel brings together legal experts and the filmmaker for a timely and in-depth conversation on one of the most consequential questions in American law and democracy: the extent and limits of the presidential pardon power.
Building on themes of justice and constitutional rights raised in the film, the discussion will explore how the pardon power was designed to function, its historic uses and controversies, and its unique position as one of the most expansive—and debated—executive authorities. The panel will then examine how this power intersects with the events of January 6, including legal analysis surrounding both President Biden and President Trump’s pardons related to January 6th, related issues of accountability, and what these questions reveal about the health of democratic institutions.
