Law, Civil Liberties, and the Continuing Pursuit of Justice: From Wayne Collins to Today

Over the past 25 years, Kari Hong has worked as a solo practitioner, tenured law professor, and public interest lawyer. Kari grew up in Northfield, Minnesota, and graduated from Swarthmore College and Columbia Law School. After law school, she joined a large firm to pay off her student loans—a plan that did not last long. She left after seven months, began representing people on death row, and later launched a solo practice focused on immigration law and criminal appeals. From 2012 to 2021, she was a tenured professor at Boston College Law School. In 2021, the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project in Arizona created a position just for her, hiring her as its first Ninth Circuit attorney. For the current academic year, Kari is the director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Idaho School of Law. Kari has represented clients from all six continents and 54 countries. She has provided direct representation to more than 500 individuals, including 50 criminal appeals, roughly a dozen habeas petitions during the COVID pandemic to secure the release of vulnerable people in detention, and more than 350 immigrants before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. As a scholar, Kari has published 21 articles and book chapters, authored dozens of op-eds, and appeared as a legal commentator in national outlets including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, SCOTUSblog, and CNN. Since 2019, Kari has lived in Missoula, where she stays busy playing in a recreational hockey league and coaching her kids—making her uniquely qualified to speak on where ice does, and very much does not, belong.

Emily Croston (she/her) is the Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Idaho, where she has been litigating civil rights violations for the past three years. Her cases have fought for the rights of immigrant, transgender, and incarcerated Idahoans, including challenges to the immigration raid in Wilder, Idaho in 2025 and the state law restricting access to restrooms for transgender people. While attending law school at the University of Virginia and directly after, Croston represented classes of incarcerated people across the country in multiple challenges to inadequate medical and mental health care in prisons. She is passionate about the safety and dignity of all people and works to protect this in Idaho.

Wendy J. Olson, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho, is a partner in Stoel Rives’ Litigation practice. She focuses her practice on government investigations, white-collar criminal defense, civil litigation, and pro bono civil rights cases. At Stoel Rives, Wendy routinely represents individuals and businesses in state and federal False Claims Act investigations and other regulatory proceedings. As part of a Stoel team, she successfully defended a former aluminum parts manufacturing company supervisor against charges in the District of Oregon of major fraud against the United States. She has participated in voting rights, reproductive rights, First Amendment rights, and fair housing pro bono litigation. Wendy has represented media outlets seeking access to court proceedings and sources. In May of 2024, Wendy helped a client win a $1.176 million jury award for false statements made about him. Prior to being appointed U.S. Attorney by President Barack Obama in 2010, Wendy served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for 13 years. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Wendy was a trial attorney in the Criminal Section, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Wendy also served as a law clerk for U.S. Chief District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle. Wendy is a Pocatello native and, even on her best days, the third best lawyer in her family. She and her husband, Craig, have two amazing adult daughters and four poorly behaved dogs.