Arlin M. Adams Lecture
Presented by Jessica Schoenherr
Breaking the Legal Stalemate: How Membership Changes Shift Stakeholder Strategies at the U.S. Supreme Court
October 6, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Stretansky Concert Hall
Supreme Court justices complete large amounts of work in short periods of time, and they need attorneys’ help to get it done. Attorneys provide that help in merits briefs, where they offer preliminary legal research and potential outcomes for the justices to reach. But with great responsibility comes great power, and attorneys also use their briefs to see how far they can push their own agendas. That is, attorneys use their briefs to persuade and to plant ideas in the justices’ heads about where the law can go in the future. Using data from 2,396 cases presented between the 1984 and 2018 Supreme Court terms, this lecture will walk through different ways attorneys use their briefs to persuade, investigate and push…and how successful they are at doing it.
Jessica Schoenherr is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Georgia. She received her doctoral degree from Michigan State University in 2020. Schoenherr’s research interests are in American political institutions and the federal court system — particularly the U.S. Supreme Court. She specifically addresses two different but related questions: (1) Who shapes the law? and (2) Who shapes perceptions of the judiciary and its shaping of the law? Some of her work is funded by a National Science Foundation grant, and different pieces have been published or accepted in outlets including the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics and the Journal of Law and Courts.
About the Arlin M. Adams Lecture
The family of Sigfried and Janet Weis and The 1994 Charles B. Degenstein Foundation, with support from the Annenberg Foundation, established the Arlin M. Adams Center for Law & Society in 2001 in honor of Adams. The Center presents the annual Arlin M. Adams Lecture, which brings legal scholars to campus to present on relevant legal topics.
Past Speakers
- 2023: Panelists Susan Peikes Gantman, Anne E. Lazarus, Melissa L. Norton and James P. Kleman Jr. ’98, Judicial Discipline
- 2022–23: Christina Boyd, Women in the Federal Judiciary: Trends in Selection and Decisions
- 2022: Rebecca A. Reid, Indigenous Sovereignty and State Compliance to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
- 2021: Anna Gunderson, Captive Market
- 2020: Kaitlin M. Boyle, Reporting Rape on College Campuses: Interactional, Institutional Barriers and Solutions
- 2019: Lee Epstein, The Evolving U.S. Supreme Court
- 2018: Valerie Jenness and Julia Abbate, The Power, Promise and Peril of Law: A Discussion of Law on the Books and Law in Action as It Relates to Prison Rape
- 2017: Shoba Wadhia
- 2016: Paul Kaplan, He Never Had a Chance: Capital Defendants in Contexts of Racist Fear
- 2015: Robin D.G. Kelley, Crimes of Liberty: Race, War and the Unfinished Business of Abolition
- 2014: Robert Skitol, Trust Me? The Shifting Sands of U.S. Antitrust Policy, 1890-2014
- 2013: Richard Leo, False Confession and Wrongful Conviction: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions
- 2012: Timothy Sandefur, The Right to Earn a Living and Valerie Jenness, Agnes Goes to Prison: Transgender Prisoners in Prisons for Men and the Olympics of Gender Authenticity
- 2011: Charles Ogletree, Is America Post-Racial in the Age of Obama?
- 2010: Edward Schumacher-Matos and Angela Davis
Arlin M. Adams Center for Law & Society
Embark on an exciting journey at the Arlin M. Adams Center for Law & Society, where students are propelled into immersive, future-ready opportunities, including thrilling internships and enlightening lectures by legal scholars, shedding light on crucial legal landscapes. This vibrant hub serves as the launching ground for promising futures in law, political science and beyond.
The Honorable Arlin M. Adams
Arlin M. Adams was a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. His distinguished career included 17 years on the bench and decades of involvement in professional, charitable and educational organizations.
Adams began his career in private legal practice and, while continuing to practice law, he joined the faculty at University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his appointment as a federal judge, he served a term as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. After he retired as a federal judge, he went on to serve as counsel at one of Philadelphia’s largest law firms, Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, for 25 years. He was also a past president of the American Judicature Society and the American Philosophical Society, and a member of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts.
A Philadelphia native, Adams earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Temple University and a law degree from University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of Penn Law Review. Determined to serve his country, Adams enlisted as a logistics officer with the U.S. Navy during World War II.
A long-time friend of Susquehanna University, Adams was a visiting Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Susquehanna in 1981 and received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the university in 1985.
The family of Sigfried and Janet Weis and The 1994 Charles B. Degenstein Foundation, with support from the Annenberg Foundation, established the Arlin M. Adams Center for Law and Society in 2001 in honor of Adams. The Center presents the annual Arlin M. Adams Lecture, which brings legal scholars to campus to present on relevant legal topics.
Lectures & Speakers Series
Susquehanna’s diverse selection of lectureships and speaker series brings together esteemed scholars, industry leaders and influential voices to share their expertise and perspectives with the campus community. These events serve as vibrant platforms for critical thinking, fostering a culture of intellectual exploration and innovation.