Hearing Judge Miller discuss his line of work and its impact was fascinating and helped me realize how integral judges are to politics and society. I also realized that although judges have the very serious job of maintaining the law, they view individuals who commit crimes as real people rather than criminals and take into account their upbringings and attitudes when deciding sentences. Judge Miller humanized the judicial process for me.

I also enjoyed hearing his opinions on current events such as the Larry Nassar case because I read the news and form opinions on what’s going on in the world around me but lack an in depth understanding of the law. It was easy for me to be 100% supportive of the judge dealing with this case without having a complete context of the roles and responsibilities which as judge takes on. His opinions complicated my perspective on this topic.

Judge Miller touched on the subject of the opioid epidemic briefly, offering some long-term solutions to the issue. I am from a city which is at the center of the opioid epidemic and having this discussion made me realize that I want to learn more about this subject and short-term actions taken against this issues, whether through personal research or hearing an expert speak on the subject.

In addition, as a liberal person I already agreed with almost everything that Judge Miller had to say. In the future I think it could be really interesting to hear from a professor or expert of their field who has a conservative point of view, as I don’t know much about this perspective.