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As throngs of people use baseball bats to break into the Capitol, this officer makes a defining choice. He pulls out the pepper spray, and turns to face the crowds outside.

This year’s Cutler Lecture was delivered by Dr. Sonia Mittal, a former senior counsel and assistant U.S. attorney who played a leading role in the prosecutions of participants in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. She is a scholar of constitutional failure with publications in several leading journals.

As a child, Dr. Mittal was a bright-eyed passenger in the back seat of her parents’ car, her nose pressed up against the window as she admired the rolling landscapes of America, drinking everything in. Her fascination did not reside only with the endless blue skies, but with how everyone always drove on the same side of the road, and with how assuredly the traffic lights functioned. Though she didn’t have the right words then, she now knows that what she was appreciating was America’s rule of law, and well-functioning state institutions. As an adult, she has devoted herself to supporting these institutions through the practice of law.

Years of cold dinners. Missed bedtimes. Long hours. Mittal described lawyering in an era of democratic erosion like doctoring in the emergency room.

“Overwhelming”, “distressing”. These are the words Mittal used to encapsulate the difficulty of parsing through the widespread, public angst towards the state of our democracy. January 6th was the textbook example of political disorder: individuals angered by the outcomes of an electoral process attempted to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. And yet, its implications are far from being fully comprehended by the public, its repercussions far from being effectively addressed by the justice criminal justice system.

“Our laws aren't designed for this. There is no ‘attempted coup’ section in the Department of Justice”.

Mittal explained that there is a glaring gap within the U.S. Constitutional system in its ability to address direct threats to democracy. “Our laws aren't designed for this. There is no ‘attempted coup’ section in the Department of Justice”. Mittal explained that, in the absence of statutes that target attacks on the peaceful transfer of power, January 6 prosecutors resorted to charging participants in the insurrection with misdemeanor trespassing charges.

In addition to delivering the Cutler Lecture, Mittal met with undergraduates over lunch to share her wisdom and answer questions about careers in law and public service, and participated in a meeting of Professor Gretchen Helmke’s undergraduate seminar “Democratic Erosion”. In both of these venues, Mittal emphasized the value of a career in which one pursues his or her own passion. “You don’t need to do everything, know what you want to do or want to be, jump through every hoop, or get every gold star,” she told students. Mittal encouraged students to ask themselves, “why do I want to do what I say I want to do?”, “what brings me joy to do?”. “Passion is powerful. Being overzealous is an asset” Mittal reminded the students sitting in front of her. The next generation is to rise to the challenge of defending democracy, and must have both in abundance.