In this talk, Emory Professor Tonja Jacobi asks what conditions are required for the law to provide justice. The answers to that question show why the current U.S. Supreme Court is suffering a crisis of legitimacy.

This is a free event.

About Tonja Jacobi:

Tonja Jacobi is Professor of Law and Sam Nunn Chair in Ethics and Professionalism at Emory Law School. She has a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University, a Masters from the University of California, Berkeley, and a law degree with first class honors from the Australian National University. Prof. Jacobi specializes in Supreme Court judicial behavior and public law. Her areas of interest include judicial politics, Supreme Court oral arguments, constitutional criminal procedure, legislative process, and constitutional law. Combining doctrinal, empirical, and formal analysis, Prof. Jacobi examines how judges respond to institutional constraints. In particular, she is a renowned expert in Supreme Court oral argument: in a series of empirical studies covering sixty years of arguments, she has identified patterns and prejudices in judicial and advocate behavior, and has shown that case outcomes can be predicted based on those behaviors. Supreme Court justices have commented on this work and said it changed the Court. She has published in over sixty peer review and law review journals. She also regularly writes Op Eds in major periodicals such as the New York Times, and the Washington Post, and has a regular column in Bloomberg Law: Questions Presented, which examines thorny issues facing the U.S. Supreme Court and ethics in the legal profession. She has multiple forthcoming law review articles on judicial behavior and criminal procedure that can be made available by the author.

A hand holding a gavel upon three stacked TVs. On top, an old CRT TV with the word “JUSTICE” on the screen. It is on top of two more vintage TVs: one with an image of pro-choice protest signs and one with an image related to student debt.

Image designed by Eden Gutstein