Drawing on inspiring stories from the book she co-wrote with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue—Amanda Tyler traces her mentor’s lifelong pursuit of gender equality and unwavering commitment to achieving “a more perfect Union" through her career as a civil rights lawyer and as a judge on the high court. In a more personal vein, Tyler explores the impact of Justice Ginsburg on the lives of those who worked with and for her—from her exacting and meticulous standards to her deep integrity, personal warmth, and generosity as a mentor and friend. With special insights into Justice Ginsburg’s legacy, audiences are left inspired by her example to keep up the work toward the U.S. Constitution’s aspiration of “a more perfect Union.”

As a former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and a distinguished scholar of civil liberties, constitutional law, and the federal court system, Amanda Tyler offers audiences a deeply informed, behind-the-curtain perspective on the inner workings of the Supreme Court. With stories that bring the latest and most important decisions to life—and with a focus on the cases of greatest interest and relevance to your audience—Tyler makes the Court and its processes more accessible, while tracing the likely impact of specific decisions—on American society, business and the economy, and on the individual lives of American citizens.

At a time when social and political conflict have made us more polarized than ever before, Amanda Tyler shares stories of how our constitutional system was born out of compromise and how at critical moments in United States history, civil discourse has taken center stage. She also shares timeless principles she learned from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for whom she clerked and with whom she wrote a book. Although Justice Ginsburg never wavered in her pursuit of justice and equality, she also believed strongly in the principles of civil discourse and respectful debate. As Tyler shares through stories and lessons learned, Justice Ginsburg’s long-standing, deep friendship with conservative Justice Antonin Scalia proved a lesson for us all in taking seriously the views of those with whom you disagree and approaching conflict with humility, all the while finding common ground. 

Having authored two books on habeas corpus in wartime and lectured widely while serving as a go-to expert for government agencies and the press on presidential emergency powers, Amanda Tyler can dissect recent events involving claimed emergency presidential powers against the backdrop of historical experience. Tyler shares stories of past periods of constitutional stress in the United States, while offering insights gleaned from history that bear on how to think about the separation of powers in the United States government today. 

At a time when the country is yearning for constitutional heroes, Amanda Tyler shares the story of the young woman who filed the only direct challenge to the United States government’s mass detention of over one hundred thousand Japanese Americans during World War II. Supported by a lawyer who encountered threats to his life and took on the case when no other lawyer would, the woman at the heart of the case of Ex parte Endo was the only Japanese American litigant to win a case before the U.S. Supreme Court during the War. Tyler will share the inspiring story of how Mitsuye Endo selflessly turned down release from the camps in order to keep her case alive, spending almost two extra years behind barbed wire for the benefit of all Japanese Americans. As Tyler explains, Endo’s eventual victory before the high court led directly to the closing of the camps, leading many survivors of the camps to call her “the woman who set us free.”