The Supreme Court was the focus of the February 9 NYU Law Forum, with panelists looking broadly at it as an institution, and specifically at cases on its current docket. Participants in the event, titled "From Video Game Violence to Religion: The Supreme Court at Midterm," were Tom Goldstein, a leading High Court litigator and co-founder and contributing editor of SCOTUSblog; Roderick Hills Jr., William T. Comfort, III Professor of Law; and Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor and legal correspondent for Slate, and a contributing editor at Newsweek. Lithwick, along with moderator Barry Friedman, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law, co-authored an article published by Slate in October, titled "Watch as We Make This Law Disappear: How the Roberts Court disguises its conservatism." That piece served as a jumping off point for much of the Forum discussion, with Friedman and Lithwick parrying frontal attacks on their arguments from both Goldstein and Hills. Combative hilarity best describes the spirit of the debate, which blended rhetorical broadsides, comedy, and constitutional analysis.
Watch the full discussion (1 hr 12 min):
Published February 15, 2010