Pulitzer Prize-winning legal journalist Linda Greenhouse spoke on the direction of the Supreme Court during a lecture at Presidents Hall on Wednesday as part of the Poynter Center’s lecture series. Greenhouse is the Center’s Third Annual Poynter Chair.
Her lecture explored “the past, present and future of a weaponized Court that has shattered political science theory and raised urgent questions about whether the Supreme Court as currently empowered is serving the country’s interests.”
Greenhouse focused on the current makeup of the court, this summer’s Dobbs case, and religious freedom, among other topics. She also touched on how Supreme Court nominees have become more partisan over the years.
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“There is no longer any discontinuity between the nominated president and the behavior of that president’s appointees,” Greenhouse said. “Instead, there’s political identity.”
At the end of the lecture, the floor was opened up for a question-and-answer session. Greenhouse was asked what is the future of public opinion about the court.
“What’s going to happen if people simply don’t respect the court? That’s what we’re going to find out. This has really happened overnight,” Greenhouse said. “We’re all going to learn together what happens when a court just loses the ability to inspire anything but fear.”
Currently, Greenhouse is Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School. Before that, she covered the U.S. Supreme Court for nearly 30 years for The New York Times.
