University of Southern California USC Logo

USC News logo

University

Panel to Preview Supreme Court Term

By Gilien Silsby on September 28, 2009 8:13 AM

  • Panel to Preview Supreme Court Term
  • Constitutional expert and USC Law professor Rebecca Brown

The USC Gould School of Law will present the second annual “U.S. Supreme Court: A Preview,” a panel discussion featuring distinguished legal scholar Theodore B. Olson, former professor Pamela Karlan of Stanford Law School and professor Rebecca Brown of USC Law. The program will be co-sponsored by the American Constitution Society and Federalist Society student organizations.

Moderated by USC Law professor and vice president for academic planning and budget Elizabeth Garrett, the symposium will take place on Oct. 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the University Club, with a reception beginning at 5:30 p.m.

The panelists will discuss and debate the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court term, which begins that day. They will look at the dynamics of the Court, its future and the addition of Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Olson, Karlan and Brown also will examine several high-profile cases involving criminal law, juvenile sentencing and First Amendment rights. Intellectual property, securities and other business issues will be addressed.

“We are very fortunate to have two outstanding Supreme Court advocates on the panel this year, both of whom will argue cases before the Court this term,” said Brown, the Newton Professor of Constitutional Law. “They will offer insights from a special vantage point regarding the issues coming up and the various factors that will influence the Court as it begins the new term.”

Olson is one of the nation’s premier appellate and U.S. Supreme Court advocates. He has argued 55 cases in the Supreme Court, including Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board and Bush v. Gore, stemming from the 2000 presidential election. He was the 42nd Solicitor General of the United States, nominated by George W. Bush in 2001.

Karlan, a leading expert on voting and the political process, has served as a commissioner on the California Fair Political Practices Commission and as an assistant counsel and cooperating attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun and Judge Abraham D. Sofaer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Brown is a constitutional theorist whose scholarship focuses on judicial review and its relationship to individual liberty under the U.S. Constitution. She is currently researching a shift in the Supreme Court’s approach to constitutionalism. She clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and U.S. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Spottswood W. Robinson III.

Garrett specializes in the legislative process, direct democracy, the federal budget process, the study of democratic institutions, statutory interpretation and tax policy. She clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Marshall and Judge Stephen Williams on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

To RSVP for the event, call (213) 740-3841 or e-mail events@law.usc.edu.