E. Harold Hallows Lecture

Description

TOUGH TALK AND THE INSTITUTIONAL LEGITIMACY OF OUR COURTS

Presented by

Hon. Patience Drake Roggensack, Wisconsin Supreme Court

Chief Justice Patience Drake Roggensack invites the legal and broader community to consider an emerging challenge to the institutional legitimacy of the judicial system. Today courts, both federal and state, are targets of tough talk, such as public statements that certain opinions are "so false as to be comical" or reflect a court that is "corrupt, rigged, and renegade." Do such comments merely disparage the opinion in question, or does the tough talk have more-global effects? Does tough talk diminish the belief in courts as legitimate institutions? Have courts brought much of this criticism on themselves? What is our responsibility as lawyers or citizens in this context? Join us for what the Chief Justice hopes to be the beginning of a conversation.