THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE:
THE SUPREME COURT AND THE AMERICAN PUBLIC
FRIDAY, January 29, 2010, 10:30 a.m. Free. Reservations required. Please call 215.409.6700 or order online.
Annenberg Center for Education and Outreach
F.M. Kirby Auditorium
National Constitution Center
Independence Mall
525 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA
Please note this program runs from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
The National Constitution Center and the University of Pennsylvania Law School welcome Lee Epstein, Barry Friedman and Jeffrey Rosen for a conversation about the Supreme Court’s relationship to American popular opinion. Guests will discuss Friedman’s thesis from his new book, The Will of the People, which states that the justices and the people are partners in a “marriage” that sidesteps the two elected branches. Friedman does not argue that the justices and the people are always in agreement, "but rather that they come into line with one another over time.” Veteran Supreme Court watcher and SCOTUSblog correspondent Lyle Denniston moderates.
Lee Epstein is the Henry Wade Rogers Professor at Northwestern University, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Political and Social Science. A recipient of ten grants from the National Science Foundation for her work on law and legal institutions, Epstein has also authored, co-authored, or edited over 100 articles and essays, as well as 14 books, including the Constitutional Law for a Changing America series, The Supreme Court Compendium, The Choices Justices Make and Advice and Consent: The Politics of Judicial Appointments. She is a former chair of the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association and a past President of the Midwest Political Science Association. She is a Co-Editor of the Journal of Law, Economics & Organization, and serves (or has served) on the Editorial Boards or Advisory Panels of the American Journal of Political Science, the American Political Science Review, American Politics Research, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, I•CON: The International Journal of Constitutional Law, Law & Policy, Law and Social Inquiry, Law & Society Review, Political Research Quarterly, and Social Science Quarterly.
Barry Friedman is the Vice Dean and Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. He has taught, written and litigated about the Constitution for 25 years. He is one of the country’s leading authorities on the federal courts and judicial behavior and has published over fifty academic articles in some of the country’s leading journals. Along with Professor Steven Burbank, he co-edited Judicial Independence: An Interdisciplinary Approach. He also contributes regularly to the mainstream media, with articles or opinion pieces in The New Republic, The New York Times, The American Lawyer, and Forbes.com, among others. The Will of the People is his first book.
Jeffrey Rosen is a professor of law at The George Washington University and the legal affairs editor of The New Republic. His most recent book is The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America. He also is the author of The Most Democratic Branch, The Naked Crowd, and The Unwanted Gaze. Rosen's essays and commentaries have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, on National Public Radio, and in The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer. The Chicago Tribune named him one of the 10 best magazine journalists in America and the L.A. Times called him, "the nation's most widely read and influential legal commentator."
Lyle Denniston, now in his 61st year as a journalist, has reported on the Supreme Court for 51 years and covered one fourth of the Justices ever to sit on the Supreme Court bench. Denniston is currently covering the Court for SCOTUSblog, an online clearing house of information about the Supreme Court’s work. He is the author of The Reporter and The Law: Techniques of Covering the Courts (Columbia University Press, 1992) and contributed two chapters to 100 Americans Making Constitutional History (CQ Press, 2004).
A book sale and signing will follow the program, courtesy of Joseph Fox Bookshop. Parking for this event is available for $9.00 at the National Constitution Center garage located at the rear of the building on Race Street between 5th and 6th Streets. Parking availability is subject to change, so please call the Constitution Center on the day of the program or check our web site for more information. Please also see our directions by public transportation.
For reservations please call 215.409.6700 or order online*. Programs at the National Constitution Center begin promptly and latecomers may not be admitted to the program. Please note that this program is subject to change.
*Convenience fees apply to online ticket orders. Call to reserve your tickets at no cost: 215-409-6700.
Related Links:
Lee Epstein
Barry Friedman
Jeffrey Rosen
SCOTUSblog
