Bert Brandenburg looks at judicial elections from voters’ perspective in next IJPM lecture Feb. 23

Wednesday, February 11, 2009, By News Staff

Sara Miller
(315) 443-9038

Bert Brandenburg, executive director of Justice at Stake-a nonpartisan campaign working to keep courts fair and impartial-will present “Judicial Elections Through the Eyes and Ears of Voters” on Monday, Feb. 23, as part of the spring “Law, Politics and the Media” lecture series presented by the Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media (IJPM). Brandenburg’s lecture will take place from 3:50-5:10 p.m. in Room 204 at the Syracuse University College of Law. His lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available in SU pay lots.

Brandenburg was the Justice Department’s director of public affairs and chief spokesperson under U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. He served in policy and communications positions for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Performance Review, the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and presidential transition team, U.S. Rep. Edward Feighan and the Progressive Policy Institute. Brandenburg also was vice president of international programs for the Santéch Institute and served as an observer during the 1990 Pakistan national elections. He serves on the National Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on Judicial Campaign Conduct and the Coalition Alliance of the American Bar Association’s Coalition for Justice.

Justice at Stake campaign partners educate the public and work for reforms to keep politics and special interests out of the courtroom, so judges can do their job protecting the Constitution, citizens’ rights and the rule of law. JAS is currently funded by grants from the Carnegie Corp. of New York, the Joyce Foundation, the Moriah Fund and the Open Society Institute.

The goal of the “Law, Politics and the Media” lecture series is to provide an introduction to the court system and its environment as a single, integrated subject of study. Throughout the spring semester, sitting judges, practicing lawyers and working journalists will be featured speakers. The lecture series is part of an interdisciplinary course on law, politics and the media that is cross-listed between the College of Law, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The course is taught by SU professors Keith Bybee (IJPM director), Lisa Dolak (IJPM associate director) and Mark Obbie (IJPM associate director), and funded through support from the John Ben Snow Foundation and the Carnegie Corp.

Launched in September 2006, IJPM is an academic institute devoted to the interdisciplinary study of issues at the intersection of law, politics and the media. A collaborative effort of the College of Law, Maxwell School and Newhouse School, the institute sponsors lectures, conferences and symposia designed to foster discussion and debate among legal scholars, sitting judges and working journalists.

For more information on the “Law, Politics and the Media” lecture series and IJPM, visit http://jpm.syr.edu.