NORTHAMPTON — Raised into activism and grassroots organizing, Marisol Pierce Bonifaz cites two key events that, for her, served as calls to action: U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s dismissive response to youth activists pushing for the Green New Deal, and the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault by several women, including Christine Blasey Ford, who testified at his contentious confirmation hearing. When he was confirmed to the court in 2018, Bonifaz said the message she took was: In this world, one man’s word is more than a thousand women.

Since then, Bonifaz, a junior at Amherst Regional High School, has gone on to found the first Massachusetts chapter of the Young Feminist Party, working on issues such as sex education and the gender pay gap and organizing rallies and walkouts.

Speaking to approximately 100 fellow high school students packed into the old Hampshire County Courthouse for the annual Law Day event Friday, Bonifaz urged them to speak up for change.

“Youth activism is hard,” she said, noting that it would be lovely to be a child without a care in the world. “I wish we had a world that was truly equal, a world where everyone was free, but we don’t. So change is crucial. All of our rights matter.

“Just because we are young does not mean we are any less capable, or knowledgeable, or needed in this place. We are the change we need to see in the world.”

Threats to democracy

Also speaking to this year’s Law Day theme, “Voices of Democracy,” was Bonifaz’s father, Amherst lawyer and Free Speech for People founder John Bonifaz, who addressed attacks on the right to vote, big money and holding insurrectionists accountable

People have fought to expand the right to vote since the nation’s founding, he said, leading to the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments after the Civil War, and 19th Amendment that enfranchised women in 1920. At the height of the Vietnam War, the 26th Amendment was adopted, lowering the voting age to 18.

But this expansion of the electorate is not universally welcome.

“There are forces in this country who do not want a multiracial democracy,” Bonifaz said.

He cited a mercenary group in Tennessee that on the eve of the 2020 election planned to send members to St. Paul and Minneapolis to threaten and discourage voters. Free Speech for People, representing groups such as the League of Women Voters of Minnesota, sued successfully to prevent the plot from being carried out.

Voter intimidation continues in the wake of the 2020 election, which some continue to claim was fraudulent. Bonifaz said his organization has challenged a group in Colorado whose members are going door to door, accusing people of voting fraudulently in 2020. The case is set for trial this summer.

Free Speech for People is also suing the perpetrators of the fake robocalls, purportedly from President Biden, that went out on the eve of the New Hampshire primary this year telling people not to vote, he said.

The growing influence of big money in elections, boosted by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allowing unlimited spending by corporations on elections, means that less than 1% of the population accounts for more than 80% of political donations, Bonifaz said.

“Corporate influence has no right to drown out other people’s voices,” he said.

His organization has proposed the Free and Fair Elections Amendment, and is working with Rep. Jim McGovern on advancing the measure in Congress.

In the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, Bonifaz’s organization urged election officials in every state to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies from office anyone who has taken an oath of office and engaged in insurrection.

Cases were brought in several states, and three of them — Colorado, Maine and Illinois — ruled that former President Trump should be disqualified from the ballot for this year’s presidential election. The Supreme Court took the case and “invented an exception” that would require Congress to act on the matter, Bonifaz said, describing the court’s decision as “wrong and dangerous.”

The fight continues, he told the students.

“I urge you to remain vigilant and help to defend democracy for generations to come,” he said.

One student asked whether there was a difference between the oath of office taken by Trump and any other officer of the United States.

John Bonifaz said most scholars had concluded there was no distinction.

District Attorney David Sullivan said it was clear that not only was Trump an insurrectionist, but so was every congressman involved in trying to overturn the election results.

Asked for her advice to young people seeking change, Marisol Bonifaz suggested starting with a local organization that reflected their own priorities. She also would advise “carving out spaces that are all young people. “Not everyone will take you seriously,” she said of the adult world.

An intern with state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa and a member of the transition team for Attorney General Andrea Campbell, she recommended interning.

“You need to work “inside and outside,” she said. “That’s how change works.”

Friday’s events were attended by students from Easthampton High School, Hilltown Cooperative Charter School, Hampshire Regional High School and South Hadley High School.

The day began with remarks by James Winston, president of the Hampshire County Bar Association, Sullivan, and Assistant District Attorney Becky Michaels, who read Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra’s proclamation of May 3 as Law Day in Northampton.

Afterward, Michaels summarized the message:

“Learn everything you can and be an informed voter.”