The Court We Need: Dean's Luminaries in Law Series Featuring Stephen Vladeck

The Dean’s Luminaries in Law Lecture and Conversation series welcomes Stephen Vladeck, a nationally recognized expert on the Supreme Court, the federal courts, national security law, and military justice.

In this special lunchtime event, Professor Vladeck will be interviewed by Andrew Siegel, Professor of Law. Together, they will explore the current Supreme Court, its problems, and what needs to change. They will also cover the response of both the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts to the Trump administration; the Court's use and misuse of the Shadow docket; what it is like to argue before the current Court; and Supreme Court culture, personalities, and trivia.

Students, faculty, and members of the broader legal community are invited to attend this engaging installment of the Luminaries in Law series.

Date: Thursday, October 29, 2026

Time: Noon to 1:00 p.m.

Location: Sullivan Hall C6

Free and open to all

This event is co-sponsored by the Seattle University School of Law Project on the Supreme Court and Our Constitutional Future.

About Stephen Vladeck

Stephen Vladeck is the Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Federal Courts at Georgetown University Law Center and the author of the New York Times bestseller "The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic".

A highly regarded appellate advocate, Vladeck has argued three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and more than 20 before lower federal civilian and military courts. He is a frequent congressional witness, having testified before committees including the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and has served as an expert witness in U.S. and foreign tribunals.

His honors for scholarship, popular writing, teaching, and service include the 2024 University of Texas President’s Research Impact Award and his selection by the Order of the Coif as its Distinguished Visiting Professor for 2025. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute. And he is the inaugural holder of the National Institute of Military Justice’s Professor Edmund Morgan Chair in Military Justice.

Vladeck is also a leading public voice on the work of the Supreme Court. He serves as CNN’s Supreme Court analyst and writes One First, a popular weekly Substack newsletter about the Court. His scholarship has appeared in leading journals, including the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, and the Supreme Court Review, and his popular writing has appeared in outlets ranging from The New York Times and The Atlantic to Slate and TIME. He is also co-author of Aspen Publishers’ leading national security law and counterterrorism law casebooks.

Vladeck graduated from Yale Law School in 2004, where he was an executive editor of the Yale Law Journal, won the Harlan Fiske Stone Prize for outstanding moot court oralist, and shared the Potter Stewart Prize for best moot court team performance. He earned his B.A. summa cum laude with Highest Distinction in History and Mathematics from Amherst College in 2001, and clerked for the Honorable Marsha S. Berzon on the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable Rosemary Barkett on the Eleventh Circuit. Before joining the Georgetown faculty, he taught for eight years at the University of Texas School of Law (2016–24) and, earlier, at the University of Miami School of Law (2005–07) and American University Washington College of Law (2007–16).

Vladeck's newest book, "The Court We Need: What's Really Wrong with the Supreme Court — And How to Fix It" will be released in May 2027. The Shadow Docket won the 2024 Order of the Coif Book Award and the 2023 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award for Non-Fiction and was a finalist for the 2024 ABA Silver Gavel Award for Media and the Arts.

About the Dean's Luminaries in Law Lecture and Conversation Series

The Dean's Luminaries in Law Lecture and Conversation Series brings to Seattle University School of Law nationally and internationally preeminent leaders from law practice, the judiciary, government, and the corporate world, to share their bold ideas about the future of law and the legal profession.

About the Project on the Supreme Court and Our Constitutional Future

The Seattle U Law Project on the Supreme Court and Our Constitutional Future is an initiative dedicated to focusing academic, community, and student attention on the significant role the United States Supreme Court (and state supreme courts) play in shaping the world in which we all live. The Project sponsors symposia, speakers, curriculum, and research that both educate about the work of our high courts and advocate for a judiciary oriented towards protecting democracy and creating the preconditions for a just and humane future.