DECISIONS OF SUPREME COURT JUSTICES
TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION AT OU

NORMAN – “Supreme Court Justices as Human Beings” will be the focus of a free, public presentation at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, in 123 George Lynn Cross Hall, 770 Van Vleet Oval, on the University of Oklahoma Norman campus.

Larry Wrightsman, professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, will be visiting OU in conjunction with the Presidential Dream Course “Psychology and Law” being taught by Scott Gronlund, professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Launched in 2004, the university’s Presidential Dream Course program, sponsored by the Office of the President, allows instructors to bring renowned speakers to campus in an effort to enrich the academic environment for students and the general public.

Wrightsman’s research interests include social psychology and law, focusing specifically on two topics: entrapment and U.S. Supreme Court decision making. With regards to U.S. Supreme Court decision making, Wrightsman is researching the following questions: Can the votes of justices and the outcomes of cases be predicted and what makes a justice a success or a failure on the Court?

Using data composed of statistical and expert predictions of all votes and decisions in the 2002-2003 term of the U.S. Supreme Court as well as records of justices’ decisions now available to the public, Wrightsman attempts to shed light on his questions concerning how U.S. Supreme Court justices arrive at their decisions.

Wrightsman received his doctoral degree from the University of Minnesota in 1959. He is the author of Judicial Decision Making: Is Psychology Relevant? (1999), co-author of the second edition of Forensic Psychology (2005) and co-author of Trial Consulting, currently being published by the Oxford University Press.

For more information concerning Wrightsman’s visit or accommodations on the basis of disability, contact Gronlund at (405) 325-4553 or sgronlund@ou.edu.