The University of Akron School of Law's Joseph G. Miller and William C. Becker Center for Professional Responsibility will host Joan Biskupic, editor-in-charge of legal affairs for Reuters News Service, on Friday, Nov. 8, at 4 p.m. as part of the center’s Journalism and the Law lecture series. Biskupic will examine the differences that various trailblazing American justices have made in her topic, "From Thurgood Marshall to Sonia Sotomayor: The Voices of Groundbreaking Supreme Court Justices."
Joan Biskupic
Biskupic will engage the audience in examining how the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, as the first African American justice, brought topics of race discrimination before his courtroom colleagues. Biskupic also will reflect on the careers of Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, the country’s first Hispanic justice, and the impact their service has made on the high court.
An author and veteran Washington legal affairs journalist, Biskupic has covered the U.S. Supreme Court for 20 years and has written several books on the judiciary that specialize in presenting the Supreme Court through the lens of judicial biography. Prior to joining Reuters earlier this year, Biskupic was the legal and Supreme Court correspondent for USA Today and The Washington Post. She also has been a regular panelist on PBS's "Washington Week with Gwen Ifill;" made frequent appearances on NPR's "Diane Rehm Show;" and been an occasional guest on NBC's "Today Show;" ABC's "Good Morning America" and "Nightline," and CBS's "Face the Nation."
Biskupic has written biographies of two of the U.S. Supreme Court's most influential justices in recent times, Sandra Day O’Connor (2005) and Antonin Scalia (2009).
Presented by the UA Law School's the Joseph G. Miller and William C. Becker Institute for Professional Responsibility, the lecture will be held Friday, Nov. 8, at 4 p.m. at UA School of Law 150 University Ave., Akron, Room 152. To register, call 330-972-6363, or e-mail manovac@uakron.edu. One hour of free continuing legal education (CLE) will be offered.
Story by Drew Williams
Media contact: Laura Massie, 330-972-6476 or massie1@uakron.edu.