October 22, 2026
SIU Simmons Law Lesar Lecture to examine the fight for justice in the courts
CARBONDALE, Ill — Journalist and attorney Reynolds Holding examines how Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court have imposed limits on the authority of federal judges over the past 70 years during the 2026 Hiram H. Lesar Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Simmons Law School.
Holding’s free, public presentation, “Better Judgment: How Three Judges are Bringing Justice Back to the Courts,” also highlights the work of three specific jurists whom Holding said, “in very different ways and from very different places, have resisted those limits and tried to do what they believe is their job — to allow people to get into court and have their cases heard and receive some form of justice.”
The presentation is at 5:30 p.m. in the Lesar Law Building Auditorium, Room 120. This is the 29th lecture in the series established to honor law school-founding Dean Hiram H. Lesar. A reception starts the festivities at 5 p.m. in the law school’s formal lounge.
Media availability
Reynolds Holding will be available for interviews before the lecture. To arrange for interviews, contact Payton Van Hoy, marketing associate, SIU Simmons Law School, at payton.vanhoy@siu.edu or 618-453-8263.
Holding is a research scholar and editor-at-large at Columbia Law School. His 2025 book, “Better Judgment: How Three Judges Are Bringing Justice Back to the Courts,” illuminates how important it is to understand the impact an individual judge can have on the life of an ordinary person — that it’s not just Supreme Court rulings that impact democracy. He highlights the careers of three federal district judges he believes are leading the way to judicial reform. They are:
- Jed Rakoff, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York.
- Martha Vázquez: U.S. District Judge for the District of New Mexico.
- Carlton Reeves: U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi.
Lecture reflects Lesar’s commitment
“It is a timely book for a lecture rooted in civil rights,” Brenner Johnson said. “Holding’s book draws on archival and legal records along with extensive interviews with the judges and their clerks, colleagues, friends, and families. You don’t need a law degree to care about whether the courts are working for ordinary people. Reynolds Holding is a gifted storyteller who makes these questions come alive and this promises to be a great evening of conversation.”
Greater flexibility
Holding argues that the erosion of federal court power undermines our constitutional system. He explains that Congress has limited the authority of federal courts, and that “limits on their authority to review and decide cases — and on people’s access to justice — should be lifted.”
He hopes the audience comes away with a better understanding of what federal district judges and trial judges do — namely, “how they go about their days, how they grapple with issues and reach decisions and write opinions.”
Honored to present the Lesar Lecture
Before joining Columbia Law School, Holding was legal editor of Reuters “Breakingviews,” the financial commentary arm of Reuters. He also worked as national editorial producer for the Law and Justice Unit of ABC News, as senior writer at Time magazine, executive editor of Legal Affairs magazine, and as an investigative reporter and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, where he was a 1999 Pulitzer Prize finalist in the explanatory reporting category.
Before becoming a journalist, Holding was a lawyer with the New York firm of Debevoise & Plimpton. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Duke University School of Law.
“I'm honored to have the opportunity to share my work with people who care about the courts and offer my views on public officials who are in some ways the most important figures of the moment: judges who are every day trying to uphold the rule of law in the face of fierce resistance from the administration and threats to their safety,” Holding said.