Is the Supreme Court Democratically Legitimate?
Olatunde Johnson is the Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’59 Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, where she is distinguished for her scholarship on antidiscrimination law and civil procedure. She is “committed to to cultivating the next generation of civic-minded lawyers,” drawing upon her extensive history of public service from clerking for Judge David Tatel on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court to working for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund from 1997 to 2001. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute. In addition, Professor Johnson served on President Biden’s Commission on the Supreme Court to produce concrete recommendations to reform the nation’s highest court to the White House. Professor Johnson will be discussing the legitimacy of the Supreme Court as a democratic institution – not only in its formation and appointment process, but addressing broader questions of the breadth and penetration of the Court’s political power.
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