CNN analyst and best-selling author Jeffrey Toobin to speak in Tempe on Feb. 28

Jeffrey Toobin, senior analyst for CNN and staff writer for The New Yorker, has been named the 2017 Rhodes Chair in Public Policy and American Institutions at Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University.

He will deliver the 2017 John J. Rhodes Lecture in Public Policy titled “The Supreme Court in the Post Obama Age” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28, at the Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway. The event is open to the public. Tickets are free with a small surcharge.

What direction will the U.S. Supreme Court take with the end of the eight-year administration of President Barack Obama and the newly elected President Donald Trump? What will be the implications and consequences of a more conservative Supreme Court? Will long-held constitutional rights be upheld? Toobin, one of the country’s most high-profile experts in politics, media and the law, will address these issues and others in his lecture.

Toobin earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard College and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1993 and the senior legal analyst for CNN since 2002.

He is the author of several best-sellers, including "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court," which delves into the historical, political and personal inner workings of the Supreme Court and its justices. "The Nine" spent more than four months on the New York Times Best Seller list and was named one of the best books of the year by Time, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly and the Economist. It also received the 2008 J. Anthony Lukas Prize for Nonfiction from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

His latest book, "The Oath," is a sequel to "The Nine" and gives an insider’s account of the ideological war between the John Roberts Supreme Court and the Obama administration. Toobin also is the author of the best-sellers "Too Close to Call: the Thirty-Six Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election"; "A Vast Conspiracy: the Real Story of the Sex Scandal that Nearly Brought Down a President"; and "The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson."

Previously, Toobin served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn. He also served as an associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, an experience that provided the basis for his first book, "Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer's First Case — United States v. Oliver North."

The John J. Rhodes Chair, celebrates the public-service career of one of Arizona’s and the nation’s most distinguished leaders, John J. Rhodes, who served in the U.S. Congress from 1953 to 1983. The Rhodes Chair delivers the Rhodes Lecture and is dedicated to deepening theoretical and practical understanding of the many voices and forces that influence public policy. The Chair honors the values of personal integrity, fiscal responsibility, respect for persons, and international farsightedness exemplified in the Hon. John J. Rhodes’ career.