Professor Luther Joins Panel on the Warren Court at Chicago Humanities Festival

Professor Robert Luther III took the stage in Chicago on Saturday, May 9, as part of “Peter Sagal’s Constitution Sessions: The Warren Court and Its Enemies,” a Chicago Humanities Spring 2026 Festival panel hosted at the Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture.

Moderated by “Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!” host Peter Sagal, the discussion examined the legacy of the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren and the rise of the modern conservative legal movement that emerged in response. The panel considered whether the Warren Court fulfilled or betrayed the Constitution.

Professor Luther was joined on the panel by historian Laura Kalman (University of California, Santa Barbara), Wall Street Journal Supreme Court correspondent Jess Bravin, and Professor Kate Shaw of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Professor Luther brought a distinctive perspective to the conversation, arguing that the Warren Court mainstreamed the public perception of courts as counter-majoritarian institutions, gave rise to the legal movement known as Originalism, and laid the groundwork for the politics of personal destruction known as the modern judicial confirmation process. Appointed to the faculty at Scalia Law in 2025, Professor Luther teaches and writes on the federal courts, legal and judicial ethics, political law, Congress, and professional sports. He previously served as Associate Counsel to the President in the White House Counsel’s Office, where he co-managed the judicial selection process and helped prepare more than 150 federal judicial nominees for Senate confirmation, work the New York Times Magazine described as “unique in White House history.” He has also served as Counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a law clerk to Judge Daniel A. Manion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

The event was presented with support from WBEZ Chicago.