Brandeis Stories

By Steve Foskett
October 28, 2025 • General

At a “fireside chat” Oct. 21 at the Carl J. Shapiro Theater, state Attorney General Andrea Campbell addressed a wide variety of questions about her stances as the state’s top lawyer, some of which have led to high-profile disagreements with President Donald Trump’s administration.

Speaking to a packed audience of students, faculty, staff and community members, Campbell, who earlier in the day announced her bid for re-election to a second term, implored Brandeis students to get involved in public service. She said she hasn’t looked back since “trading an Audi for the bus” when she left a law firm to run for office.

“I’m standing in my joy,” she said. “I have the best job ever; it truly is purpose-driven, and you can’t monetize that.”

Campbell’s visit to campus came after she was named the 2025 Justice Brandeis Practitioner-In-Residence earlier this year. On or around U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis’ Nov. 13 birthday, the Vic ’63 and Bobbi Samuels ’63 Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation (COMPACT) and The Abraham Feinberg Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation (ENACT) host a practitioner whose life and work exemplifies his values of justice and truth as applied to global or local community engagement activities.

Organizer Melissa Stimell, professor of the practice of legal studies and ENACT director, said the event was designed as a chance for students to interview Campbell, and they asked pointed questions about her views on everything from issues of Constitutional law to women’s rights.

Asked about the possibility of National Guard troops being sent to Boston, the attorney general said any such deployment would likely be unlawful. On several other issues, she said her office has taken a “litigation posture” to try and stop such actions in the courts, and would be prepared to do the same in this case.

On the dangers of politicizing the legal system to punish enemies, Campbell said a recent spate of high-level firings and indictments of perceived opponents of the current presidential administration is a “scary state of affairs, to say the least.” But she tempered that concern with optimism that it’s still not the norm in the rest of the country, and not how she operates as attorney general.

“We will continue to model what prosecutorial conduct aligned with our Constitution actually looks like, and what it should be,” she said.

She conceded that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have statutory authority to operate in Massachusetts, but she decried the federal agency’s tactics and lack of accountability.

“The egregious actions we’ve seen by ICE in our communities is horrific, it’s cruel, and it’s absolutely not promoting public safety,” Campbell said. “It’s inciting fear.”

She shared with the audience family tragedies she endured starting at an early age, including the death of her mother when Campbell was an infant, and her father’s incarceration. Her twin brother died while in pretrial custody, and an older brother and other relatives have been incarcerated. She said her family’s experience fueled her desire to use the tools of government to bring about positive outcomes for people. And she said she is not afraid to talk about it.

“I actually think our personal narratives give us power,” Campbell said. “If we are courageous enough to share them, I think our testimony can go far and wide and can inspire others.”