The New Yorker

Rick Hertzberg

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RICK HERTZBERG

Award-winning journalist

Rick Hertzberg is an award-winning journalist, best known as the principal political commentator for The New Yorker magazine. He is credited with helping to redesign and revitalize the magazine. He is an accomplished writer and believes that America’s system of winner-take-all elections, federalism, and separation of powers is out of date and damaging to political responsibility and democratic accountability.

He previously served as the editor of The New Republic where under his editorship the magazine twice won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, the magazine world’s highest honor. He went on to serve as the chief speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter where he wrote speeches that at one point increased the president's approval rating by 11 points. Forbes credited Hertzberg as " one of the "25 Most Influential Liberals in the U.S. Media." 

Rick Hertzberg participated in Should the People Pick Our President? With Jesse Wegman and Rick Hertzberg, on January 25, 2021.

Jeanni Gersen

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JEANNIE SUK GERSEN

Professor at Harvard Law School

Jeannie Suk Gersen is a professor at Harvard Law School and is known for her specialty in a large range of topics (including constitutional law, criminal law and procedure). She has written countless articles and three books, one of which, At Home in the Law, was awarded the Law and Society Association's Herbert Jacob Prize for the best law and society book of the year. 

In 2010, she became the first Asian American woman to receive tenure at Harvard Law School.

She is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker, focusing on legal and policy issues. She served as a law clerk to Justice David Souter on the United States Supreme Court, and to Judge Harry Edwards on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Jeanni Suk Gersen participated in The Presidential Pardon with Joyce Vance and Jeanni Suk Gersen, on January 16, 2021.

Jeffrey Toobin

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Jeffrey Toobin

Freelance lawyer

Jeffrey Toobin began freelancing for The New Republic as a law student. He went on to become a law clerk to a federal judge and work as an associate counsel to Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh during the Iran-Contra affair and Oliver North’s criminal trial, before becoming an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn. He then took up a post in 1993 at The New Yorker, and became the first television legal analyst in 1994, at ABC.

He currently is a staff writer at The New Yorker, a senior analyst for CNN since 2002, and the author of five books. Toobin’s latest book, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, has received awards from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Toobin was hosted by The Common Good in 2012: Aftermath: Supreme Court & Health Care with Carl Bernstein, Jeffrey Toobin & Susan Blumenthal.

Twitter: @JeffreyToobin