“Bench Press: The Collision of Media, Politics, Public Pressure and an Independent Judiciary”

Posted on by

October 17, 2005 – October 18, 2005

On October 17-18, 2005 in Washington, D.C., Syracuse University brought together over twenty leading voices from the academy, law, and the media to discuss the current status of judicial independence in the United States. “Bench Press: The Collision of Media, Politics, Public Pressure, and an Independent Judiciary,” provided a multifaceted examination of the topic, including a unique look at the media’s influence on the judiciary and politics at the state and federal level.

Co-sponsored by Syracuse University’s College of Law, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, the “Bench Press” symposium was a truly interdisciplinary event that pulled federal and state judges, law professors, political scientists, pundits, and journalists into a shared discussion of the issues. The discussion was organized around a national survey of public attitudes toward the judiciary — a survey that was commissioned for the symposium and conducted by the Maxwell School.

The “Bench Press” symposium was held shortly after John Roberts was confirmed as chief justice of the Supreme Court and before Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination for a seat on the Supreme Court, prior to confirmation hearings. Because of its timing and its distinguished roster of participants, the symposium garnered a good deal of press coverage, including a live broadcast by CSPAN. The symposium also led to a collection of essays written by symposium participants. The volume, Bench Press: the Collision of Courts, Politics, and the Media, is edited by Keith J. Bybee and will be published by Stanford University Press in 2007.

The Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media grows directly out of the “Bench Press” symposium. IJPM shares the symposium’s commitment to interdisciplinary discussion and analysis.

EVENT PARTICIPANTS

John M. Walker, Jr.
Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Jeffrey Toobin
Legal Analyst, CNN

G. Alan Tarr
Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University, Camden

Harold See
Justice, Supreme Court of Alabama

Jeffrey Rosen
Professor of Law, The George Washington University School of Law

Rosemary S. Pooler
Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Norman Ornstein
Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

Dirk Olin
Director, Judicial Reports

Theodore McKee
Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Warren McGraw
Former Justice, West Virginia Supreme Court

Thomas Mann
Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution

Dahlia Lithwick
Senior Editor, Slate.com

Anthony Lewis
Former Columnist, The New York Times

James E. Graves, Jr.
Justice, Mississippi Supreme Court

Tom Goldstein
Professor and Former Dean, University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia Journalism School

Stephen Gillers
Emily Kempin Professor of Law, New York University School of Law

Robert J. Grey, Jr.
Past President, American Bar Association
Partner, Hunton & Williams

Charles Geyh
Professor of Law and Harry T. Ice Faculty Fellow, Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington

Bruce Collins
Corporate Vice President and General Counsel, C-SPAN

Fred Barbash
Staff Writer and Editor, Continuous News Desk, The Washington Post

Joanne F. Alper
Judge, Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Circuit of Virginia

Nina Totenberg
Legal Affairs Correspondent, NPR

Nancy Cantor
Chancellor, Syracuse University