For the 2025 John Jay Iselin Memorial Lecture, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will be joined in conversation with author, podcaster, and former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara. The free public program will explore Justice Breyer’s philosophy when interpreting the Constitution and why understanding real-world legal consequences are as important as understanding laws.

The Strand bookstore will sell copies of Justice Breyer’s most recent book, Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism.

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Registeration on EventBrite is required. However, an EventBrite ticket does not guarantee entry as this is a first-come-first-served free event.

The Honorable Stephen Breyer is a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Born in San Francisco in 1938, he is a graduate of Stanford, Oxford, and Harvard Law School. He has taught law for many years as a professor at Harvard Law School and at the Kennedy School of Government. He has also worked as a Supreme Court law clerk (for Justice Arthur Goldberg), a Justice Department lawyer (antitrust division), an Assistant Watergate Special Prosecutor, and Chief Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1980, he was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit by President Carter, becoming Chief Judge in 1990. In 1994, he was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Clinton. He has written books and articles about a range of legal topics, including administrative law, economic regulation, and the U.S. Constitution. His books include Active Liberty (2005), Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View (2010), The Court and the World (2015), The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics (2021), and Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism (2024).

Preet Bharara, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), is a New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, and accomplished attorney. Before serving as US Attorney, Mr. Bharara was chief counsel to Senator Charles Schumer, the current US Senate Minority Leader. He co-founded CAFE Studios and is the host of CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network’s “Stay Tuned with Preet” and “CAFE Insider,” where he shares his perspectives on issues of justice and fairness. Bharara graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and from Columbia Law School, where he was a member of the law review. In 2012, TIME Magazine included Bharara on its list of 100 most influential people in the world. In 2017, Bharara joined the NYU School of Law faculty as a Distinguished Scholar in Residence. In 2022, he joined the law firm WilmerHale as a partner, focusing on strategic counseling, crisis management, and investigations.

The John Jay Iselin Memorial Lecture honors 10th President of The Cooper Union, who served from 1987 to 2000. As General Manager and then President of Channel 13, Jay Iselin was largely responsible for making Public Television a vital force in broadcast journalism, originating such programs as “Nature” and “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.” Past Iselin lecturers have included White House photographer Pete Souza, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ed Yong, and political activist and law professor Zephyr Teachout.