The Meiklejohn Lecture

Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse will lecture April 12

Linda Greenhouse, who covers the U.S. Supreme Court for The New York Times, will present “Telling the Court’s Story: The Role of Courts as Communicators” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, in Sayles Hall. The presentation is this year’s Meiklejohn Lecture.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Linda Greenhouse, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who reports on the U.S. Supreme Court for The New York Times, will present a lecture titled “Telling the Court’s Story: The Role of Courts as Communicators” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, in Sayles Hall, located on The College Green. The lecture is open to the public without charge.

Greenhouse joined the Times in 1968 as a news clerk to columnist James Reston. One year later she was promoted to general assignment reporter. In 1974, she was assigned to Albany to cover the New York State legislature and state government. She spent four years in the capital, the last two as bureau chief. Following a year at the Yale Law School in 1977-78, where she earned a master of studies in law, Greenhouse joined the Washington bureau. Since then, she has covered both the Supreme Court and the Congress. The Times named her a senior writer in 1990. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for her coverage of the Supreme Court.

In 1991, Greenhouse received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Brown.

Greenhouse’s presentation is this year’s Meiklejohn Lecture, which honors the memory of Alexander Meiklejohn, the distinguished educator, alumnus and civil libertarian. Meiklejohn was a dean at Brown University (1901–12) before becoming president at Amherst College. Among his many accomplishments was the creation of an experimental college at the University of Wisconsin.

Meiklejohn is well known for his defense of First Amendment freedoms, and it has often been said that Meiklejohn is the non-lawyer most frequently quoted by the U.S. Supreme Court.